At last it rested on the water, and there was a shimmer where the wood frame had set ripples moving.

We watched it twinkle for a little while, and the jailer raised the candle from the water, and dropped down a stone from some he kept there for that purpose.

This stone struck the wall half-way down, and went from side to side, crashing and whirring till it met the water with a booming plunge; and there rose a groan and moan from the eddies, like those dreadful sounds of the surge that I heard on lonely nights in the sea-caverns underneath our hiding-place in Purbeck.

The jailer looked at me then for the first time, and his eyes had an ugly meaning, as if he said, 'There--that is how you will sound when you fall from your perch.' But it was no use to frighten, for I had made up my mind.
They pulled the candle up forthwith and put it in my hand, and I flung the plasterer's hammer into the bucket, where it hung above the well, and then got in myself.

The turnkey stood at the break-wheel, and Elzevir leant over the parapet to steady the rope.