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Chapter Two - The Cavern Under the Sea
The circles were so much smaller at the bottom of the basin, and the boat
moved so much more swiftly, that Trot was beginning to get dizzy with the
motion, when suddenly the boat made a leap and dived headlong into the
murky depths of the hole. Whirling like tops, but still clinging together, the
sailor and the girl were separated from their boat and plunged down--down--
down--into the farthermost recesses of the great ocean.
At first their fall was swift as an arrow, but presently they seemed to be going
more moderately and Trot was almost sure that unseen arms were about her,
supporting her and protecting her. She could see nothing, because the water
filled her eyes and blurred her vision, but she clung fast to Cap'n Bill's
sou'wester, while other arms clung fast to her, and so they gradually sank
down and down until a full stop was made, when they began to ascend again.
But it seemed to Trot that they were not rising straight to the surface from
where they had come. The water was no longer whirling them and they
seemed to be drawn in a slanting direction through still, cool ocean depths.
And then--in much quicker time than I have told it--up they popped to the
surface and were cast at full length upon a sandy beach, where they lay
choking and gasping for breath and wondering what had happened to them.
Trot was the first to recover. Disengaging herself from Cap'n Bill's wet embrace
and sitting up, she rubbed the water from her eyes and then looked around
her. A soft, bluish-green glow lighted the place, which seemed to be a sort of
cavern, for above and on either side of her were rugged rocks. They had been
cast upon a beach of clear sand, which slanted upward from the pool of water
at their feet--a pool which doubtless led into the big ocean that fed it. Above
the reach of the waves of the pool were more rocks, and still more and more,
into the dim windings and recesses of which the glowing light from the water
did not penetrate.
The place looked grim and lonely, but Trot was thankful that she was still
alive and had suffered no severe injury during her trying adventure under
water. At her side Cap'n Bill was sputtering and coughing, trying to get rid of
the water he had swallowed. Both of them were soaked through, yet the
cavern was warm and comfortable and a wetting did not dismay the little girl
in the least.
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