“Mebbe this hyar wind an’ rain hev beat him off’n the ledge!” exclaimed Pete, appalled and rising hastily. “I tell ye now,” he added, turning to his mother, “the best use ye kin make o’ that boy is ter put him on the fire fur a back-log.”
Pete made his preparations in great haste. He took the rope from the well, asked the [v]crestfallen and browbeaten junior a question or two relative to the place, mounted old Sorrel without a saddle, and in a few minutes was galloping at headlong speed through the night.
The rain was over by the time he had reached the sulphur spring to which George had directed him, but the wind was still high, and the broken clouds were driving fast across the face of the moon.
By the time he had hitched his horse to a tree and set out on foot to find the cliff, the moonbeams, though brilliant, were so [v]intermittent that his progress was fitful and necessarily cautious. When the disk shone out full and clear, he made his way rapidly enough, but when the clouds intervened, he stood still and waited.
“I ain’t goin’ ter fall off’n the bluff ’thout knowin’ it,” he said to himself, in one of these [v]eclipses, “ef I hev ter stand hyar all night.”
The moonlight was brilliant and steady when he reached the verge of the crag. He identified the spot by the mass of broken vines, and more positively by Ethan’s rifle lying upon the ground just at his feet. He called, but received no response.
“Hev Ethan fell off, sure enough?” he asked himself, in great dismay and alarm. Then he shouted again and again. At last there came an answer, as though the speaker had just awaked.
“Pretty nigh beat out, I’m a-thinkin’!” commented Pete. He tied one end of the cord around the trunk of a tree, knotted it at intervals, and flung it over the bluff.
At first Ethan was almost afraid to stir. He slowly put forth his hand and grasped the rope. Then, his heart beating tumultuously, he rose to his feet.
He stood still for an instant to steady himself and get his breath. Nerving himself for a strong effort, he began the ascent, hand over hand, up and up and up, till once more he stood upon the crest of the crag.