A plank had lain there in the morning, he remembered stumbling over it, and complaining of its having been left there; he cursed himself now for his care.
"A hut used by the navvies to keep their tools in stood about two hundred yards away; perhaps it had been taken there, perhaps there he might even find a rope.
"'Just one minute, old fellow!' he shouted down, 'and I'll be back.' "But the other did not hear him.

The feeble struggles ceased.

The face fell back upon the water, the eyes half closed as if with weary indifference.

There was no time for him to do more than kick off his riding boots and jump in and clutch the unconscious figure as it sank.
"Down there, in that walled-in trap, he fought a long fight with Death for the life that stood between him and the woman.

He was not an expert swimmer, his clothes hampered him, he was already blown with his long race, the burden in his arms dragged him down, the water rose slowly enough to make his torture fit for Dante's hell.
"At first he could not understand why this was so, but in glancing down he saw to his horror that he had not properly closed the lower sluices; in each some eight or ten inches remained open, so that the stream was passing out nearly half as fast as it came in.