L Frank Baum

The Scarecrow of Oz L Frank Baum

The circles were so much smaller at the bottom of the basin, and the boat moved so much moreswiftly, that Trot was beginning to get dizzy with the motion, when suddenly the boat made a leapand dived headlong into the murky depths of the hole. Whirling like tops, but still clinging together, the sailor and the girl were separated from their boat and plunged down-down-down-into thefarthermost recesses of the great ocean. At first their fall was swift as an arrow, but presently they seemed to be going more moderatelyand Trot was almost sure that unseen arms were about her, supporting her and protecting her. Shecould see nothing, because the water filled her eyes and blurred her vision, but she clung fast toCap'n Bill's sou'wester, while other arms clung fast to her, and so they gradually sank down anddown until a full stop was made, when they began to ascend again. But it seemed to Trot that they were not rising straight to the surface from where they hadcome. The water was no longer whirling them and they seemed to be drawn in a slanting directionthrough still, cool ocean depths. And then-in much quicker time than I have told it-up theypopped to the surface and were cast at full length upon a sandy beach, where they lay choking andgasping for breath and wondering what had happened to them. Trot was the first to recover. Disengaging herself from Cap'n Bill's wet embrace and sitting up, she rubbed the water from her eyes and then looked around her. A soft, bluish-green glow lightedthe place, which seemed to be a sort of cavern, for above and on either side of her were ruggedrocks. They had been cast upon a beach of clear sand, which slanted upward from the pool of waterat their feet-a pool which doubtless led into the big ocean that fed it. Above the reach of the wavesof the pool were more rocks, and still more and more, into the dim windings and recesses of whichthe glowing light from the water did not penetrat