As he approached it he looked round for the watchman who ought
to have been there, but the man was gone from his post. He shouted, but
if any answer was returned, it was drowned by the roar of the rushing
water.
"He reached the edge and looked down. Fifteen feet below him was the
reality of the dim vision that had come to him a mile back in the woods:
the woman's husband swimming round and round like a rat in a pail.
"The river was flowing in and out of the lock at the same rate, so that
the level of the water remained constant. The first thing the man did
was to close the lower sluices and then open those in the upper gate to
their fullest extent. The water began to rise.
"'Can you hold out?' he cried.
"The drowning man turned to him a face already contorted by the agony of
exhaustion, and answered with a feeble 'No.'
"He looked around for something to throw to the man. 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.
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