CHAPTER XLIV
Debacle
SCREAMING to make himself heard above the roar of the deluge, Barcus yelled in Alan's, ear: "That devil! He's found the reservoir—opened the sluice-gates—turned it into that shaft! We're done for!"
Alan had no argument with which to gainsay him. Silently getting on his feet he groped for Rose and drew her away with him, up the incline that led back to the bulkhead.
The hour that followed lived ever in his memory as an hour in hell. To die there, in the darkness, like so many noxious animals trapped in a well. …
The water mounted rapidly. Within five minutes it drove them back to the elbow in the tunnel, within ten it lapped their ankles as they lingered there, doubting which was the greater peril, to advance or to stand fast.
Of a sudden the thought crossed Alan's mind that Marrophat had arranged the fuse and the keg of powder solely to keep them away from the bulkhead. Now that he thought of it, he felt certain that the
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