“Sure the knot will not slip, sergeant?” said Lennox.
“Oh, it won’t come undone, sir. If it moves at all, it will be to get tighter.”
“That is what I meant. I want to breathe.”
“Less talking there,” said the captain. “Recollect that a man’s life is in danger. If you feel any compunction about going, Mr Lennox, make way for one of the men.”
“Ready, sir, and waiting for your orders,” said Lennox quietly.
“Very well. Now then, lower away.”
The sergeant took a firm hold of the rope, and whispered “Trust me, sir,” to the explorer, who nodded and looked calmly enough in the sergeant’s eyes, and gave way as he felt himself lifted off the stones upon which he stood and gently lowered down till he was half-hanging, half-sitting, against the sloping side of the rock. Then a few feet of the rope glided through the sergeant’s hands, and Lennox stiffened himself out, to hang rigidly, feeling his back rest against the wet rock, over which he began to glide slowly, and then faster and faster as he was let down hand over hand, seeing nothing but the black darkness lit up like a quaint halo in front of him, and going down what he felt to be a terrible depth. He fought hard against one horrible thought which would trouble him: should he ever be pulled up again? And no sooner had he mastered this than another gruesome idea forced itself as it were out of the darkness in front, the words to his excited imagination seeming to be luminous: suppose the rope should break!
It is wonderful how much thought will compress itself into a minute. It was so here, these ideas repeating themselves again and again before the young man’s feet touched something soft and yielding, and upon his stretching his legs wide he felt slippery rock.
“Hold on!” he shouted, and there was what sounded like a mocking chorus of “On—on—on—on!” beginning loudly and distinctly, and going right away into a faint whisper.
Turning himself a little on one side, Lennox bent outward so that the light of the lantern flashed from a narrow stream of water which, from the bubbles and foam, he could see was rushing towards him, to pass down under the ledge of rock upon which one foot rested; but now he was able to see what he wanted, and that was the missing corporal hanging face upward, but with head and neck over the edge of a block of stone which had checked his rapid slide down into the gulf, while the next moment the light showed that the poor fellow’s legs were also hanging downward, the ledge being exceedingly narrow.