'A precious bad way,' thought Snap, 'but still better than this,' and, so thinking, he crept round the corner, and after what had seemed an age to him again got his foot on a firm hold. For here round the corner was a broad ledge, as if made by the falling away from the cone of some great chip of granite when that convulsion had taken place which had rent the cone from its very summit to where he stood. Now too he saw clearly that, though solid on the other side, a great crack ran down the peak on this side, just big enough for a man to squeeze into at the bottom, and slowly widening, until at the top the cone was divided into three distinct peaks, on the largest of which the balloon was anchored.
Snap had arranged with Dick that three sharp tugs at the lariat meant 'Come along, I can hold you.' First he passed a bit of the lariat round a jutting corner of the broken rock, and then he gave the three tugs agreed upon.
With eyes shut and heart beating he clung to the rock, and prayed that Dick might not slip. It seemed an hour of waiting until he heard a loud gasp at his side, and Dick's voice panting out:
'Wal, I reckon that's summat of a crawl, but blow me if I think Natur' ever meant me to do them bluebottle tricks.'
As he spoke it seemed as if a thaw had suddenly set in in Snap's heart, the relief was so great, and, clinging hard to the rocks, they both laughed until the boys in the crevice heard them, and wished that they were there to share in the merriment.
'Wal, now, Snap, what next? You couldn't set us an easier one this time, now, could you?' asked Dick.
'Yes, Dick, it's not so bad this time, it's only what mountaineers call a chimney, and then we shall be there.'
'Oh, only a chimney, he says,' muttered Dick; 'fust you turns bluebottle, then you turns sweep—all quite natural, of course—and then you're there. And, unless we turn balloonatics when we git there, there, it seems to me, we'll stick!'
'You follow me, Dick,' said Snap, 'and do as I do; shove your elbows and knees against the opposite sides of the crack as soon as you have room to, and wriggle up.'
Dick obeyed, talking away to himself all the while, so that, had the danger been less, the inclination to laugh would have taken the strength out of Snap's arms and let him down with a crash.