All of this Leonard took in by degrees; also he discovered that Juanna was either dead or senseless, at the time he could not tell which.
“What are you going to do?” he asked of Otter, who by now was on the verge of the ice fifteen feet above them.
“Cut steps and pull you up, Baas,” answered the dwarf cheerfully.
“It will not be easy,” said Leonard, glancing over his shoulder at the long slope beneath, “and if we slip or the rope breaks——”
“Do not talk of slipping, Baas,” replied Otter, as he began to hack at the ice with the priest’s heavy knife, “and as for the rope, if it was strong enough for the Water-Dweller to drag me round the pool by, it is strong enough to hold you two, although it has seen some wear. I only wish I had such another, for then this matter would be simple.”
Working furiously, Otter hacked at the hard surface of the ice. The first two steps he hollowed from the top of the slope lying on his stomach. After this difficulties presented themselves which seemed insuperable, for he could not chip at the ice when he had nothing by which to support himself.
“What is to be done now?” said Leonard.
“Keep cool, Baas, and give me time to think,” and for a moment Otter squatted down and was silent.
“I have it,” he said presently, and rising he took off his goat-skin cloak and cut it into strips, each strip measuring about two inches in width by two feet six inches in length. These strips he knotted together firmly, making a serviceable rope of them, long enough to reach to where Leonard and Juanna were suspended on the stout handle of the spear.
Then he took the stake which had already done him such good service, and, sharpening its point, fixed it as deeply as he could into the snow and earth on the border of the ice belt, and tied the skin rope to it.