“A scout in khaki ought to do that,” I said. “We ought not to let a new fellow risk——”
“You’re so strong on good turns,” Warde said. “Aren’t you willing to give a fellow a chance to win the khaki? Here, grab hold of my hand. I’m not going to walk off the ledge. Do you think I’m blind?”
“Well, anyway, be careful,” I said. I felt kind of shaky, I couldn’t help it. Because below that ledge there must have been a hundred feet and for all we knew it was straight up and down.
I got a good firm foothold by bracing my feet behind a rock. “Stand back,” I said to the other fellows. Then I held Warde’s hand while he climbed down onto the ledge. I couldn’t keep hold of his hand till he got all the way down, but he braced his feet on the side of the rock that made a kind of wall up from the ledge.
The ledge was all rock and it was slanting so no one could stand on it without taking a chance. Between the cracks in the rock were small bushes growing.
I said, “Get down on your hands and knees, quick. Don’t try to stand there.”
Now that he was down there on the ledge I saw how risky it was. Before there was any one down there it didn’t seem so very dangerous, but as soon as I saw a person on it then I was sorry I had let him do it. I didn’t see how he was going to look over the edge because he’d have to keep his hands toward the wall to hang on. He’d be taking an awful chance if he faced the other way.
“It’s pretty slanting, hey?” Westy said.
I said, “Don’t trust to it, hang onto the bushes.”
“I’m all right,” Warde said.