“I don’t know,” I answered, despairingly. “If we can’t escape from this rock we are little better off than those poor fellows below us. See! the stone, as it fell, tore away the ledge completely.”
“No climb down, any way at all,” said Bry, squatting upon the rock and clasping his knees with his hands.
“We haven’t any rope, or enough clothing to make one,” I continued, striving to be calm and to force myself to think clearly. “But if we remain up here it won’t take us long to die of thirst or starvation. The aggravating thing about it is that the mainland is just too far away for us to leap across to it. We’re in a bad fix, boys, and no mistake.”
Bry gazed reflectively at the trees.
“If we had axe,” said he, “we chop down tree, and make fall across the gulf.”
“Ah! that’s a clever idea,” I cried; but my elation quickly subsided, and I added gloomily, in the next breath: “only we have no axe.”
Bry made no answer, but sat thoughtfully gazing around him. Presently he began to creep around the table of rock on his hands and knees, examining every part of its surface with great care.
At one place, where the edge of the rock was jagged and of a harder character than the rest, he paused to make a more thorough examination, and then he drew out his one-bladed jack-knife and began prying into the rock with its point.
Nux and I immediately crept to his side to see what he was doing, and soon Bry had loosened a piece of rock that weighed about five pounds. It was flat on the lower surface and of irregular circular form. This fragment the Sulu examined with great care, and struck it sharply against the rock without breaking it. It seemed to meet his approval, for he laid it carefully aside and at once attempted to pry up another portion of the hard rock. Then, when he had again succeeded, he sat down and began cautiously chipping one piece of rock against the other, until he had brought the first fragment to a wedge shape that resembled a rude axe.
“Ah! I understand now what you’re about, Bry,” I exclaimed, delightedly. “Do you think you can make it work?”