Another wave swept round their ankles, and remained there.
“Good,” said Jim Airth, and loosed her wrists. “We shall owe our lives to each other. Next time I look into your face, please God, we shall be in safety. Come!”
He sprang up the face of the cliff, standing in the highest niches he had made.
“Now follow me, carefully,” he said; “slowly, and carefully. We are not in a position to hurry. Always keep each hand and each foot firmly in a niche. Are you there? Good!... Now don’t look either up or down, but keep your eyes on my heels. Directly I move, come on into the empty places. See?... Now then. Can you manage?... Good! On we go! After all it won’t take long.... I say, what fun if the Miss Murgatroyds peeped over the cliff! Amelia would be so shocked at our bare feet. Eliza would cry: ‘Oh my dear love!’ And Susie would promptly fall upon us! Hullo! Steady down there! Don’t laugh too much.... Fine knife, this. I bought it in Mexico. And if the big blade gives out, there are two more; also a saw, and a cork-screw.... Mind the falling sand does not get into your eyes.... Tell me if the niches are not deep enough, and remember there is no hurry, we are not aiming to catch any particular train! Steady down there! Don’t laugh.... Up we go! Oh, good! This is a third of the way. Don’t look either up or down. Watch my heels—I wish they were more worth looking at—and remember the belt is quite handy, and I am as firm as a rock up here. You and all the Miss Murgatroyds might hang on to it together. Steady down there!... All right; I won’t mention them.... By the way, the water must be fairly deep below us now. If you fell, you would merely get a ducking. I should slide down and pull you out, and we would start afresh.... Good Lord!... Oh, never mind! Nothing. Only, my knife slipped, but I caught it again.... We must be half way, by now. How lucky we have my glissading marks to guide us. I can’t see the ledge from here. Let’s sing ‘Nancy Lee.’ I suppose you know it. I can always work better to a good rollicking tune.”
Then, as he drove his blade into the cliff, Jim Airth’s gay voice rang out:
| “Of all the wives as e’er you know, Yeo ho! lads! ho! Yeo ho! Yeo ho! There’s none like Nancy Lee, I trow, Yeo ho! lads! ho! Yeo ho! See there she stands |
—Blow! I’ve struck a rock! Not a big one though. Remember this step will be slightly more to your right
| —and waves her hands, Upon the quay, And ev’ry day when I’m away, She’ll watch for me; And whisper low, when tempests blow— |
Oh, hang these unexpected stones! That’s finished my big blade!
| —For Jack at sea, Yeo ho! lads, ho! Yeo ho! |