Very soon, indeed, a figure loomed up, pulling the cord as well as clambering daringly up the cliff face, and with joyfulness leaped over the edge on solid ground.
"Thanks, my boy!" he muttered.
"Thank our Father above, Mr. Dearborn—it is He who did it all!" responded the youth.
"I beg your pardon, you have said the proper thing. It makes a fellow religiously inclined to be in such straits and miraculously pulled through them. Lead on, Leon, it is late—but first, let us undo the lasso, and efface the marks of my coming up and over."
"Are you not going back this way?"
"Dear, no; much obliged. In that little climb I nearly broke my neck a hundred times, short measure! Besides, it is not the getting out of the camp that will worry me. Make haste—the young ladies must be just dying from uneasiness."
Drudge unloosed the lasso and coiled it round him in a few minutes.
"Ready, sir?" he said.
"Show me the way. I am not able to get about—I cannot see at all."
"You need not fear, I know the road very well by this time."