“I think it can,” I said, staring at the walls of the crevice. “And I’m going to try.”
“Don’t be a fool!” Alarm jumped into his voice. “You’ll slip.”
“If you want to try the bulge, try it. This is my way.”
I swung off the ledge, groped for a foothold, edged my hand along the cliff face until I got a grip and started up again. It was slow and difficult work. The hazy moonlight didn’t help me much, and most of the time I had to feel for handholds. As my head and shoulders came level with the bottom of the crevice the knob of rock on which I was standing gave under me. I felt it shift a split second before it went and I threw myself forward, clawing at the rock bed of the crevice in a frantic effort to get a hold. My fingers hooked into a ridge of rock and there I hung.
“Take it easy!” Kerman bawled, as hysterical as an old lady with her dress on fire. “Hang on! I’m right with you!”
“Stay where you are,” I panted. “I’ll only take you down with me.”
I tried to get a foothold, but the toes of my shoes scraped against the cliff face and trod on air. Then I tried to draw myself up, pulling the whole of my weight with my fingertips, but that couldn’t be done. I managed to raise myself a couple of inches and that’s as far as I got.
Something touched my foot.
“Take it easy,” Kerman implored below me. He guided my foot on to his shoulder. “Now, give me your weight and push up.”
“I’ll push you down, you fool!” I panted.