"Can you hang on there for a few minutes?" questioned Steve.
"Me hang—me hold fast."
"That's right. I will relieve you in a minute. Now, Bob, it is your turn. Can you climb up here?"
"Watch me. Can you hold on, Steve?"
"All the rest of the day. You are a featherweight compared with the weight I have been holding up. But hurry."
Jarvis began to climb, moving cautiously, throwing as little strain on the arms of Steve Rush as was possible under the circumstances.
"You're doing well. Come along," urged Steve. "This is like building a human pyramid the way we used to do it at high school. Have you got the bar?"
"Right you are. Hooray!"
Steve Rush breathed a deep sigh of relief. He knew that he could have held on but a few minutes longer. His arms were at the point of giving out when the Italian had begun to climb. But now he felt that they were all safe for the moment, though there was only a slender iron bar between them and destruction at the bottom of the shaft.
"Now, what are we going to do—hang here all the rest of the day?" demanded Bob Jarvis.