"Have no fear, we will hold it fast."
I hovered above the abyss and was slowly lowered. I had almost reached the platform when I heard above me a strange creaking; at the next moment I knew I was falling, but a strong arm was thrown around me and Franz Schorn and I staggered and fell on the platform. Just then I heard a scream from above.
"Great God!" exclaimed the voice of the Judge. "The rope has broken; the Professor has fallen into the abyss!"
This was all the work of a moment. I tried to stand up, but I could not; my right ankle was terribly painful. Franz Schorn, who had fallen with me, was quickly on his feet.
"I never will believe that the rope broke," he whispered. He seized it and examined it by the light of his lantern on the ground; mine had been broken and extinguished in my fall.
"It was half cut through before it broke," he said in a dull tone. "That scoundrel, Foligno, has tried to plunge you into the abyss."
Hastily taking a knife from his breast pocket he cut off the end of the rope and handed it to me.
"Keep this," he whispered. "You may perhaps need it for proof that the rascal tried to murder you."
I heard his words, but I did not understand him. My thoughts were in wild confusion; I was still half stunned by my fall. Mechanically I followed his directions and put the piece of rope in my pocket. Only gradually did I clearly understand in what danger I had been, and that Franz Schorn had ventured his own life to rescue mine. It was almost a certainty that I should drag him down to the abyss, but he had seized me as I fell, and at the risk of his life had pulled me back to the platform.
"You have saved my life----"