She kissed her brother as she spoke, and unclasping the knife which hung from her belt, opened the big blade, put the handle between her teeth, motioned to Shag to remain beside Harry, and then not daring to trust herself to look at those she loved so dearly, walked quickly along the gold-shingled shore towards the frowning precipice facing her, and adown whose sides the sullen cataract seemed to roar defiance on the desperate attempt which she was about to make. The gallant girl prayed as she went along, prayed more earnestly than she had ever done in her life before; for did she not know that skill, and dexterity, a firm grip, an iron nerve, all of which she possessed, were nothing without the great sustaining power and protection of the God who made her?
Yes, Topsie prayed. But she prayed not only. She trusted with all her might and main, trusted so implicitly in the Power that she prayed to, that when she reached the base of the precipice and looked upwards, ghastly and forbidding as the ascent appeared, it did not appal her.
The cataract shot down from the heights above in such a manner that it formed a kind of arch between itself and the rocky side of the lofty cave, and under it Topsie passed, and for a time became lost to her companions’ view in the water curtain that intervened between her and their anxious gaze.
She scanned the face of the precipice with the eye of a connoisseur. She had not scaled the eyrie heights at home in vain. The experience of her childhood’s scrambles over and up those steep and difficult crags, had taught her many a valuable lesson in the art of climbing. They stood her in good stead now, and enabled her to decide on the best line to take. She found, to her delight, that thick creepers hung down from above, and that between the rocks of the steep face, a vein of sandstone followed an upward course. If the creepers were strong enough to support a portion of her weight, she felt that she could cut notches in the sandstone for a footing, whenever the harder rock became steep, or denied her purchase thereon.
She ceased praying. She would pray no more. So firm was Topsie’s trust, that she would have thought it a mockery against God to have done so.
She placed her foot on a low ledge of rock, caught hold of a pointed crag above her, and drew herself slowly up to it. She had determined to husband her strength to its utmost, that exhaustion might not intervene to frustrate success. Then she seized another jutting point above this, and got into a standing position in the first.
Here she paused to take breath and bearings, both hands clasped around the second point, both feet planted firmly together on the first one. Over her head hissed the falling waters of the cataract as they performed their gigantic leap ere joining hands with the cold, dark lake below, on their way to feed the silent river up which the explorers had worked their way so hopefully, only to be entombed.
As she stood and rested herself, Topsie’s quick eye perceived across the soft sandstone vein a stretch of rock slanting hollow-wards, which she saw at once, if only it could be reached, would enable her to scale at least thirty feet of the precipice without very great exertion, and which would thus bring her to some thick interlacing creepers, strong with the growth of ages, which would be of enormous assistance to her in her desperate enterprise. But the sandstone vein was as smooth as crystal, and there was but one way to cross it, namely, by cutting notches for the hands and feet, a difficult and dangerous task indeed. Yet it must be attempted, so Topsie did not flinch. She felt certain of success, if it was God’s will. So letting herself down on to her knees, she cut into the sandstone with her knife, balancing herself with her other hand.
She managed the first notch right enough, and at once regained her former position, this time cutting a notch on a level with her hands, and another just beyond it. Then she replaced the knife between her teeth, put both hands into the two upper notches, and let her feet into the lower one.
She was now standing in such a position that the two upper notches were on a level with her waist, and they being hollowed above and below she was able to hook her right hand upwards and hold on thereby, leaving her left one free to handle the knife, which was to cut the next notch above her slanting to the left. Into this fresh notch, when finished, she would insert her left hand, after replacing the knife in her teeth, and draw her feet up into the one in which her right hand was at that moment fixed.