"Come down," she cried again. "Can't you hear me?" But Seymour's face, like a white patch, still peered down, and suddenly a girl started sobbing.
"It would seem," remarked Peter, "that the plot is going to be successful after all."
The next moment, before anyone realized what was happening, he was climbing steadily up towards the motionless man at the top.
There was only one remark made during that second ascent, and it came from the Doctor.
"You deserve, young woman," he said, quietly, to Madge Saunderson, "to be publicly whipped through the streets of London."
Then silence reigned, broken only by Peter, as he paused every now and then to shout some encouraging remark to the man above.
"I'm coming, Seymour. Absolutely all right. Can't you send for one of your bally machines, and save us both the trouble of climbing down again?"
Between each remark he climbed steadily on, until at last he was within a few feet of the aviator.
"Look away from me, Seymour," he ordered, quietly, gazing straight into the unblinking, staring eyes above. "Look at the brickwork beside you. Do as I tell you, Seymour. Look at the brickwork beside you."
For what seemed an eternity to those below the two men stayed motionless; then a great shuddering sigh broke from them—Seymour was no longer looking down.