Still, she blushed furiously, and was trembling when Maseden caught her hands and helped her to land.
“Thank Heaven we’ve kept our boots,” he said, unfastening the rope. “Just look at the ground we have to cover, and think what it would mean if our feet were bare.”
The comment was merely one of those matter-of-fact bits of philosophy which are most effective in the major crises of life. It was so true that a display of leg or ankle mattered little afterwards. Nevertheless, a similar ordeal caused Nina to blush, too, but she laughed when Madge cried ruefully:
“What in the world has happened to my ankles? They are scrubbed and bruised dreadfully.”
“That was last night’s treatment, my dear,” said her sister. “I escaped more lightly than you.”
“But what do you mean? I felt some soreness, but imagined I knocked myself in coming from the wreck.”
“You were in a dead faint, so Mr. Maseden and Mr. Sturgess massaged you unmercifully.”
Madge surveyed damages again.
“I must have been very bad if I stood that,” she said.
“You’ll be worse before we see the other side of this cliff,” murmured Nina, casting a critical eye over the precipitous ground in front.