Slowly but surely, step by step, notch by notch, the brave girl made her way across the glassy surface, until at length her hand grasped the primeval creepers with triumphant clutch. For the next thirty feet progress was easy enough to this lithe, athletic child of Nature, as hand over hand she drew herself up higher and higher towards the spot where rescue lay.
Then another difficulty intervened in the shape of the sandstone vein again, but this time there was no slant about it, as it ran straight up, perpendicular above the girl’s head for some forty feet.
Well, there was nothing for it but notch-cutting again, and Topsie buckled to her work. The spray of the cataract blew into her face and refreshed her greatly, for the sweat of exertion had burst out upon her, and stood in large beads across her brow.
It took her more than an hour to creep slowly upwards and encompass this forbidding obstacle. Several times her brain reeled, and exhaustion almost overcame her, but she battled bravely with her weakness, summoned all her remaining strength and courage, and won.
Ragged rock and crevassed crags now faced her, but after her late difficult experiences, these appeared easy sailing enough; for there was footing room and creepers to grasp and support her. Very adroitly she worked her way upwards, never once looking below, her climbing experiences having taught her how fatal the practice is, even to the best of mountaineers. No; with Topsie it was all Excelsior. Her aim was to gain the summit.
And she gained it. Within two hours of the moment when she had placed her foot on the first crag, full of confidence in God, Topsie Vane had grasped the flag of victory, and passed from her prison to the outer world.
She heard a glad, wild cheer burst forth from her darling Harry, and then cheer after cheer from those entombed with him; she heard it all as she dropped on her knees, and poured forth a silent prayer of thanksgiving for her deliverance, to the God to whom she had prayed and in whom she had trusted. Then she arose and looked about her. All around her grew primeval forest, but the earthquake which had entombed her party and the avalanche, parts of which had swept into the mine, as already related, had up heaved and borne to the ground many a noble tree, which had reared its head for centuries. The mountain stream which fed the cataract from the giant Andes was in many parts almost blocked up with the débris, but Topsie did not waste time looking about her. She had still a difficult and dangerous as well as arduous climb to perform, down and up the precipice which overlooked the entrance to the cave, and the dark, silent river below. If aught befell her in this climb, hers would be the fate to die close to and yet without the range of all she loved so dearly; for were they not entombed within the cave, and powerless to reach her?
She scrambled across jagged rocks and fallen trees, making her way over the head of the cave with all speed possible, and never pausing until she reached the deep gorge and looked down on the raft below.
Yes, there hung the thick creepers, heavy and interlaced with the growth of years, a veritable beanstalk leading up and down from the river to the heights above. Topsie grasped the head of one, and fearlessly let herself down over the precipice. More than a hundred feet yawned beneath her, but her nerve was of iron, her wrists like steel, and in less than half an hour she had loosed her hold and sprung on to the raft.
