Douglas was frightened as he was going down. His active mind suggested a strategy to save himself from being drowned in water. He knew that water has buoyancy. He mu st make a big jump as his feet hit the bottom. He hoped to rise up like a cork to the surface, lie flat on it and paddle to the edge of the pool.

Before he touched bottom, his lungs were ready to burst. Using all his strength, he made a great jump. He rose up very slowly. He saw nothing but yellow coloured dirty water. He grew panicky and he was suffocated. He swallowed more water as he tried to shout. He choked and went down again. His stiff legs refused to obey him. He had lost all his breath. 

His lungs ached and head throbbed. He was getting dizzy. He went down through dark water again. An absolute terror seized Douglas. He was paralysed under water. His reasoning power told him to jump again. He did so, but his aims and legs wouldn’t move. His eyes and nose came out of water, but not his mouth. He swallowed more water and went down third time. Now a blackness swept over his brain. He had experienced the terror that fear of death can produce as well as the sensation of dying.