The water rose another foot inside the cone--the hole had not reached the open air outside.
The situation was dreadful.

Mrs.Weldon, then almost reached by the water, had raised little Jack in her arms.

All were stifling in this narrow space.

Their ears buzzed.
The lantern only threw a faint light.
"Is the cone, then, entirely under water ?" murmured Dick Sand.
He must know; and, in order to know, he must pierce a third hole, at the very top.
But it was asphyxia, it was immediate death, if the result of this last attempt should prove fruitless.

The air remaining inside would escape through the upper sheet of water, and the water would fill the whole cone.
"Mrs.Weldon," then said Dick Sand, "you know the situation.