A few moments later the two friends were looking up at the bare rock face that extended three hundred feet straight up.
"Golly, Baba, do you really think you can take us up there?" Johnny asked.
"If you can hold on, I can take you," Baba said from Johnny's shoulder.
"Start up!" Johnny yelled. Baba leaped up onto the wall of rock, his claws cutting into it. Johnny grasped the harness and hooked his toes into a crack in the stone.
[CHAPTER FIVE]
A Mystery Indeed!
By the time Baba and Johnny had gone fifty feet up the cliff, Johnny felt as if his arms were about to be pulled from his shoulders. The boy helped push with his feet, but that took only a little weight from his arms. Below him there was nothing but boulders and sharp jagged rocks. In spite of that danger, he felt that he could hardly keep hold of the harness. Sweat poured down into his eyes.
"Hurry, Baba," he said through clenched teeth.
"Ledge soon," the little bear clicked. As he speeded up his climb he slapped his claws deep into the rock, making sharp clapping noises that echoed among the boulders below. He stopped short and Johnny saw a place where the rock jutted out a few inches. Gratefully he felt something solid beneath his feet. He couldn't put his whole foot down, but he could rest his arms a little.
"Whew," Johnny said, "doesn't the ledge get wider?"