To return was impossible,--to raise himself certain destruction.

He glanced downwards at the impetuous torrent, which he could perceive shooting past him with lightning swiftness in the gloom.

He listened to the thunder of the fall now mingling with the roar of the blast; and, driven almost frantic by what he heard and saw, he pushed with all his force against the stone.
To his astonishment and delight it yielded to the pressure, toppled over the ledge, and sank.

Such was the hubbub and tumult around him, that the carpenter could not hear its plunge into the flood.

His course, however, was no longer interrupted, and he crept on.
After encountering other dangers, and being twice, compelled to fling himself flat upon his face to avoid slipping from the wet and slimy pathway, he was at length about to emerge from the lock, when, to his inexpressible horror, he found he had lost the child! All the blood in his veins rushed to his heart, and he shook in every limb as he made this discovery.