302 THE FUR COUNTRY. It was Kalumah !
- ' Help ! help ! " sbe murmured feebly.
Hobson let himself down through the opening, and found himself up to the waist in ice-cold water. Strange to say, the roof had not given way, but as Mac-Nab had supposed, the house had sunk, and was full of water. The water did not, however, yet fill the loft, and was not more than a foot above the floor. There was still a faint hope ! The Lieutenant, feeling his way in the darkness, came across a motionless body, and dragging it to the opening he consigned it to Pond and Kellet. It was Thomas Black. Madge, also senseless, was next found ; and she and the astro- nomer were drawn up to the surface of the ground with ropes, where the open air gradually restored them to consciousness. Mrs Barnett was still missing, but Kalumah led Hobson to the very end of the loft, and there he found the unhappy lady motionless and insensible, with her head scarcely out of the water. The Lieutenant lifted her in his arms and carried iier to the opening, and a few moments later he had reached the outer air with his burden, followed by Mac-Nab with Kalumah. Every one gathered round Mrs Barnett in silent anxiety, and poor Kalumah, exhausted as she was, flung herself across her friend's body. Mrs Barnett still breathed, her heart still beat feebly, and revived by the pure fresh air she at last opened her eyes. A cry of joy burst from every lip, a cry of gratitude to Heaven for the great mercy vouchsafed, which was doubtless heard above. Day was now breaking in the east, the sun was rising above the horizon, lighting up the ocean with its brilliant beams, and Mrs Barnett painfully staggered to her feet. Looking round her from the summit of the new mountain formed by the avalanche, which overlooked the whole island, she murmured in a changed and hollow voice — "The sea! the sea ! " Yes, the ocean now encircled the wandering island, the. sea was open at last, and a true sea-horizon shut in the view from east to west.
