He attempted to check himself so suddenly that a small stone was loosened under his foot, throwing him forward with still greater impetus, and it became impossible to regain a foot-hold.
At the very edge of the precipice he clutched wildly at what seemed to be a bush, as he was literally hurled among the branches. This slight support gave way beneath his weight, and he dropped his revolver to seize with both hands the trunk of the bush.
Down, down he went, seemingly a great distance, but still holding on for dear life; and then the foliage swung upward again in the rebound, carrying him with it, as a matter of course.
Hanging like an apple on a limb, he swayed to and fro, up and down, until the trunk upon which his very life depended had settled into nearly a stationary position.
Now it could be seen that he had dropped hardly more than twenty feet from the brow of the cliff; but this was not exactly cheering information, for he was hanging over a sheer descent of thirty or forty yards. That which he had mistaken for a bush was simply the upper portion of a reasonably large tree which grew on a shelf of the rock ten or twelve feet below the crest of the ledge.
He was grasping the trunk within three or four feet of the very top, and his weight made a tremendous strain upon the root. The wood was tough, however, and fortunately for him he bent so far from the cliff as to be suspended almost at right-angles with it.
These points were noted with the quickness of thought at the same time that a plan for saving himself came like a flash of light into his mind.
Before the strain on his arms should grow too great he determined to pull himself along the trunk like an acrobat on a horizontal bar. He could not do this, however, without causing the tree to sway violently again, and it became necessary to throw one leg over the yielding wood, where he hung in imminent danger not only of slipping off, but of being carried down the precipice together with that which he clutched so desperately, for it was only a question of time before the roots would be torn from their slight hold.
Therefore it became essential that the attempt at escape should be made in another direction.