“Lie down,” he said soothingly, placing his hand on Jack's shoulder, and attempting, with gentle force, to push him back into his former recumbent position.
Jack flung the hand aside petulantly. Whatever of delirium there might be in his eyes and manner, his words, though spoken rapidly and with excitement, were rational enough.
“Look here, old fellow,” he cried, “it's all my fault, your being here in this fix; and I'm bound to do my level best to get you safe out of it, especially after the way I funked a while back. No, don't cut in and try to stop me—I know what I'm saying right enough, though I expect I do look a bit wild and that. Now, my arm here—I ain't said much about it—'tain't like me to whine, anyhow—at least not often—but all the same, my arm's getting jolly bad. Knotting the rope and that, you see, has made it a bit worse, and—well, the fact is, old fellow, I don't believe I could go down that rope to save my neck, even supposing it to be fastened, you understand.”
“I feared as much,” said Don gravely.
“Yes? Well, that's just how it stands,” Jack went rapidly on. “Tisn't that I'm afraid, you understand—there's no cliff hereabouts that would make me funk—it's simply that my arm's out of gear and won't work. Not even if the rope were fastened, you see, which it isn't. And that's what I'm coming at, old fellow. Look here, I'll tell you what we can do. Spottie and Pug can lower you away—over the cliff, you know—and then, when Pug and I have sent Spottie after you, I'll manage somehow to pay out the line while Pug follows. He's the lightest weight of the lot, anyhow.”
“All very well,” demurred Don, who thought he saw a fatal objection to Jack's plan, “but how will you get down yourself?”
“Oh, my getting down isn't in the bill at all,” said Jack; “I mean to stay right here.”
This announcement fairly took Don's breath away. He had supposed all along that Jack was holding the pith of his proposal in reserve; but never once had he so much as dreamed of such a climax as this.
“What! stop here?” he gasped. “You don't know what you're saying—it's certain death.”
“Hope I ain't such a duffer as not to know that,” said Jack brusquely. “All the same, I mean to stay.”