“Rather a tough bit of climbing,” he cried, after a few minutes’ silence; “but I’ve had worse to do: for I’ve gone over pieces like this when there has been a fall of a thousand feet or so beneath me, and that makes one mind one’s p’s and q’s, Saxe—precipices and queer spots—eh? But I shall soon do this. All it wants is a little, coolness and determination.”
“Why are you going so far along that way!” cried Saxe, who liked this tone better.
“Because the line of the stratum runs this way, and higher up there is another goes off at an angle right above where you are; and there is a projection, if I can reach it, which will do for the rope: I could see it all from down below.”
Saxe watched him breathlessly till he was on a level with the opening by which he clung, but fully forty yards away. There he turned and began to climb back, and always rising higher till he was some thirty feet higher than the opening, but still considerably to Saxe’s right.
“Now,” he said quietly, as he stood with his face close to the rock: “here is the spot, if I can get the rope over that projection.”
“But then I could not reach it,” said Saxe.
“I’ll see about that,” said Dale, carefully holding on with one hand while he drew the coil of rope over his head,—no easy task, with his feet resting upon a very narrow projection, and the rock against which he pressed himself nearly straight up and down.
“That’s right,” he said, as he let the coil rest upon one arm, and set the end free. “Now, Saxe, what’s to be done next? There’s a block up there if I could get a loop thrown over it; but lassoing rocks was not included in my education, and I’m afraid it will be rather difficult with the left hand.”
To Saxe it seemed to be impossible, and he watched intently as he saw his companion double a portion of the rope so as to make a large loop, and to tie this he had to hold the twisted hemp right above his head, pressing his chest against the rock the while so as to preserve his balance, and more than once Saxe gave a gasp as it seemed to him that the venturous man was about to fall backward.
But he succeeded, and then let the loop and his arms drop down.