“Lie still, then, till we pull you up. Mr Gurr, I can almost touch him. I could, if some one lowered me a little more.”
“No, no, my lad, no, no!” whispered the master. “Here, Dick, and you,” he said in short, quick, decisive tones, as he lay down and looked over. “Now, then, four more men here. Now, who’ll volunteer to lean over and get a good grip of him, while we hold by your legs?”
“I will,” said Dick.
“’Spose I’m as strong as any on ’em. But who’s going to hold my legs?”
“Two men, my lad, and there’ll be others to hold them.”
“Right,” said Dick shortly; and the men lay down, forming themselves into a human chain, the end of which Dick was lowered slowly down the slope and over the edge.
“Look here, my man,” said Archy, as he lay with his head and chest over the edge of the awful precipice, listening to the faint beat of the waves, and involuntarily thinking of his adventure with Ram, “as soon as Dick grips you, get tight hold of him too.”
“Ay,” came up in a hoarse whisper. “Please be quick. I feel as if I was going.”
“Now,” said the master, “ready, lads? Steady! You, Dick, give the word yourself to lower away.”
“Ay, ay, sir; lower away.” Then again, “Lower away! Lower away!”