After a while I got my breath and nerve back.
“You can’t do it, Jack,” I shouted down to him. “You’ll have to wait until I can get a rope. It’s too tricky. Don’t try it.”
“Where will you get the rope from?”
“I don’t know. I’ll find something. You wait there.”
I turned around and sent the beam of the flashlight into the darkness. I was only about thirty feet below the cliff head. The rest of the way was easy.
“I’m going now,” I shouted down to him. “Hang on until I get a rope.”
I practically walked up the next thirty feet, and came up right beside the ornate swimming-pool. Above me was the house. A solitary light burned in one of the windows.
I set off towards it.
IV
The verandah, when I got there, was deserted, and the swing lounging chair looked invitingly comfortable. I would have liked to have stretched out on it and taken a twelve-hour nap.