But there was not a movement, not a sound, to tell those breathless watchers above whether the little one was still living; she certainly was not conscious, or she surely would have made the fact known.
“Oh! what can we do?—this is terrible!” cried Gertrude, with white lips and shivering as from a chill. “But”—in an eager tone—“the child is safe, I fancy! she could not have been badly hurt just dropping into the tree; she is only breathless and faint from the fearful fall through space. Oh! Mr. Wentworth, I am sure if some one will only go to her rescue before she revives she can be saved.”
“Saved!” gasped Philip, with a shudder of horror; “why, she is as dead to us and the world at this moment as if she had already been dashed upon those rocks so far beneath her; for no one would risk his life down that precipice to attempt her rescue.”
“Some one must! Some one shall!” cried the panting girl. “Oh! if we had a rope and some one would lower me, I would go. Run—run to the hotel; tell them to bring ropes—I know she can be saved—go! go!” she concluded imperatively, while she tried to drag him to his feet.
But he appeared to be paralyzed—rooted to the spot.
“Run!” he repeated, regarding her with a dazed expression. “I could not run to the hotel if my own life depended upon it. Oh, Minnie! my poor darling!” he concluded, a sob of despair bursting from him.
Without another word, but like a flash, Gertrude turned, shot past him, and sped over the ground toward the hotel. Fast and faster she flew, never once pausing, until, spent and breathless, she sank upon the steps leading to the veranda.
Clifford, from the office window, had seen her coming, and, realizing that something was wrong, sprang forth to meet her.
“Miss Athol!—tell me—has anything happened? What can I do for you?” he exclaimed, as he reached her side.
“Oh, Mr. Cliff!”—she had heard him called Cliff, and knew him by no other name—“Minnie Temple has fallen over the cliff at the glen. A tree has broken her fall; she is caught in the branches; I have come for men and ropes to save her.”