"How's that?" he asked a minute later.
"Wait, I'll reach out and grab it."
"Don't you dare do any such thing!" almost yelled the cow-puncher. "You might lose your balance, and——"
He stopped with a gasp. A jerk had come at the other end of the rope. Down there, out of sight, Tubby had hold of it. A succession of jerks told the holder of the rope on the cliff edge that he was making the loop fast about him.
"All right!" finally hailed Tubby. Then in imitation of an elevator runner:
"Go—ing up!"
"Hold on a minute," croaked out Blinky, even his iron nerve a trifle shaken now that the crucial moment was near.
He ran back to the tree and took a deft turn round the trunk. Then he extended the end of the rope to the boys and told them to "tail on."
"What are you going to do?" asked Merritt.
"I'm going to stand at the edge of the cliff and transmit orders from below. Mind you, obey them the instant you hear them."