"It may be too late then," replied Terence; then turning to the old fisherman he bade him bring a coil of rope.
"Thank goodness, there's one man who knows what he is about," thought Aubyn, as the veteran salt hurried off. "No stopping to ask what size or what length."
The next instant the sub. was well on his hazardous climb. Grasping the handrail and making fairly certain that it would bear his weight, Terence hauled himself up, using the holes in the stonework, left by the dislodged stairs, as footholds. As sure-footed as a cat, as active as a panther, he swung himself up, hardly pausing till he gained the uppermost landing, where a few square inches of floorboards remained. Between that and the bedstead was a gap nearly ten feet in width. A professional long-jumper might have essayed the task with success, but in his case Terence realized that a leap would be out of the question.
Rapidly the sub. reviewed the situation. From where he stood he could see the children distinctly. One was a girl of about nine years of age, fair-haired and pale-faced. It was she who was screaming, more with fright than pain, although there was a dark moist patch upon her hair. Her companion was a child of about three, lying with his head over the side of the bed to all appearances either dead or else unconscious.
Already the joist nearest the gap in the shattered floor was bending ominously. Terence felt certain that even if he could get across the intervening space his weight would precipitate the bed and its occupants on to the mound of rubble and broken woodwork below.
He looked above him. The laths and plaster of the ceiling had vanished, the tiles had been blown into the street, leaving the gaunt rafters practically intact. Raising his hand he found that he could just grasp the sloping timber.
"If it carries away, I'm done," he thought. "But it's no use hanging on here, so here goes."
With a resolute leap the sub. seized the two adjoining rafters. The rough woodwork lacerated his hands, but he heeded it not. By sheer muscular effort he raised himself sufficiently to pass his arms over the timber, whence it was a comparatively simple matter to clamber on top of the outside wall.
Well it was that Aubyn had a good head for heights. Looking down from that precarious perch would make most landsmen giddy, but as coolly as if he were walking along a street, the sub. made his way round to the opposite side of the shattered house immediately over the still holding floor of the bedroom.
The elder child, on seeing Terence approach, had ceased her cries and was watching him with wide-open eyes. Then she raised herself, as if to make a spring into his arms.