“Providence,” said she, “yes—you are right.”
“I believe in strikin’ bold,” said he, almost as though he were talking to himself. “It’s like fighting with a chap, the fellow that does the hittin’ without bothering about bein’ hit. He’s the chap. Well, if you’re restored, we’ll be gettin’ along.”
He heaved up and led the way, striking right down to the sea and pausing now and then to help her. Once he lifted her as though she were a feather from one rock to the other. Then, all of a sudden they came to a ten foot drop. There was no getting round that drop, it was a basalt step that circled the whole Lizard Point on its seaward side. It did not disconcert Raft. He threw the harpoon down, then he lowered himself, clutching the edge and let himself fall. Following his directions she threw him the bundle. It would have felled an ordinary landsman, but he caught it, placed it beside him and then ordered her to jump, just as she stood, without lowering herself.
“Jump with your arms up,” said he, laughing, “no call to lower yourself. I’ll catch you.”
It was like an order to commit suicide. It seemed to her impossible, she thought that he only spoke in fun, then she knew that he was in earnest, that he was ordering her. But it was impossible—absolutely. Then she jumped with arms raised, jumped into two great hands that clipped her round the waist and brought her, feet to ground, with scarcely a jar.
“I didn’t think you’d have done it,” said he. “You ain’t wanting in pluck.”
“I knew it would be all right if you told me,” said she, “but I didn’t want to do it until the very last moment.”
After that she would have jumped over a cliff if he had told her. It seemed to her that he was invincible—infallible.
A climb of a couple of minutes brought them down to the tide mark rocks, the tide was a quarter out and the sea comparatively calm and the rocks flat-topped like those of the seal beach and free from seaweed except where, here and there, were piled masses of giant kelp torn up from its deep sea attachments and cast here by the waves. It lay in ridges that had to be climbed over sometimes and seemed entirely confined to the Lizard Point and the rocks beyond, for when they reached where the cliffs began it ceased to occur.
Where the cliffs began they first experienced the true meaning of a journey along that coast.