No signal crackings, no thin jets or streams from the green immensity
beyond.

Just one universal collapse, one chaotic climacteric, begun and ended in
the same instant, as the crust of the chamber, no longer supported by
the in-pent air, dissolved under the irresistible pressure of the sea.

Where the sparkling chamber had been was a whirling vortex of bubbling
green water, in which tumbled grotesquely the body of a man.

The water boiled furiously along the tunnel and foamed into the gallery.
The wooden supports of the iron door gave way; the door sank slowly into
its appointed place.

Old Tom Hamon was dead and buried.




CHAPTER X

HOW YOUNG TOM FOUND HIS MATCH


The news spread quickly.

Tom Hamon heard it as he sat brooding over his wrongs and cursing the
chicken-heartedness and fear of consequences which had robbed him of his
revenge.