Commodore Junk — page 274: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ASSASSINS. 267 Swimming more and more rapidly and clutching at the wall. Once an inequality gave him a few moments’ rest, and he clung desperately, uttering the most harrowing cries, but only to fall back with a heavy splash. Then he was up once more fighting for life, and the vast tank echoed with his gurgling appeals for help. Again they were silenced, and the water whispered and lapped and echoed. There was a splash, a hoarse gurgle, a beating of the water as a dog beats it before it sinks. Again silence and the whispering and lapping against the sides more faint ; then a gurgling sound, the water beat once or twice, a fainter echo or two, and then what sounded like a sigh of relief, and a silence that was indeed the silence of death. Suddenly the silence in that darkness was broken, for a hoarse voice said— “Climb up!” “Climb?” exclaimed Humphrey, who seemed to have recovered his voice, while his frozen energies appeared to expand. “Yes. Climb. I can hold you thus, but no more. Try and obtain a foothold.” Humphrey obeyed as one obeys who feels a stronger will acting upon him. “Can you keep my hands fast?” he said. ‘They are numbed.” “Yes. You shall not slip now. Climb!” Humphrey obeyed, and placed his feet upon a projection ; but it gave way, and a great stone forced from the wall by his weight fell down with a splash which roused the echoes once more. Gomicbooks —_)