Stepping back to his former position, he started to grope his way downward. For several minutes he made more rapid headway than he had at any time before.
He was congratulating himself that he would soon be at the bottom of the cliff, which lay about twenty feet below him.
All at once he gave a gasp as he felt the rock crumble beneath his feet. He had thrown his weight on a piece of crumbling limestone and it had given way.
At that moment he had some two or three feet of slack rope, that he had motioned to them to pay out, as the way was not now nearly so steep.
Grasping wildly for some projecting rock to break the jolt which he knew would come when he reached the end of his rope, and perhaps seriously hurt him, the boy was able to stay his progress a little.
However, the pressure that his body threw on the slender rope was so great as to jolt nearly all the air from his lungs.
Then Tad suddenly made another and terrifying discovery.
He was going down. He was falling.
At the top of the cliff another scene was being enacted. The sudden jolt on the rope had occurred just after the boys had paid out the rope beyond the place where Tad had spliced it before beginning his descent.
The strain was too great for it. The ropes parted at a weak spot near the knot.