"Are you at the bottom of the chasm?"
"No, I am clinging to a ledge. It is very slippery and if I should fall it would be to the bottom of the rift, which seems several hundred feet deep."
Even in his extreme danger the professor seemed cool and Frank took heart from him.
Luckily they had with them a coil of rope brought from the Golden Eagle for the purpose of lowering one of their number over the edge of the gulf onto the Viking ship—if the mast they had seen proved to be hers.
It was the work of a moment to form a loop in this and then Frank hailed the professor once more.
"We are going to lower a rope to you. Can you grasp it?"
"I think so. I'll try," came up the almost inaudible response.
The rope was lowered over the edge of the rift and soon to their joy the boys felt it jerked this way and that as the professor caught it.
"Tie it under your arms," enjoined Frank.
"All right," came the answer a few seconds later. "Haul away. I can't endure the cold down here much longer."