The three of them now halted directly under the tremendous wall, and looked up. Again Tom’s heart sank. It wasn’t so nearly perpendicular as it looked from the lake below, but he could see stretch after stretch where a climber’s face would be ticklishly close to the spot where he’d got to put his feet next time—and the great, ragged wall, in long, wavy horizontal strata belts, stretched up and up and up and up!
Did you ever stand in Broadway below the Woolworth Tower, and look up? Imagine that tipped over a little from the perpendicular, and four times as high, and you’ll have an idea of what Tom looked at.
“Well, now, this is worth coming for!” the doctor cried, cheerfully, as he took off his coil of rope, and made it ready. “Mills, will you take number one place for a way? I’ll be number two and anchor, of course. Tom can dangle off below, like a tail to the kite. How’ll you like that, Tom?”
Tom’s face must have shown what he was feeling, for the doctor suddenly changed tone.
“Come, come,” he said. “It’s not bad—only long. A Swiss guide wouldn’t even consider this dangerous. All you have to remember is to test all your hand- and foot-holds before you put your weight on them, and watch for falling stones. This shale pile means the rock may crumble easily in places. Come on—be a scout!”
“I’m game!” Tom answered, biting his lip. “I guess I won’t be stumped by an old goat!”
Mills laughed. “Wait till you see a goat perform,” he said, as he made fast one end of the rope around his waist. As he adjusted it, he added, “This is a better rope than I ever used. Where’d you get it?”
“Switzerland,” the doctor answered. “I have several I’ve brought over from time to time. You can’t get soft, flexible, braided rope here in this country. We don’t go in for mountain climbing enough to make it.”
Tom was now fastened on the lower end of the rope, and the doctor in the middle, and the ascent began.
“You watch me use the rope,” the doctor said to Tom. “It will show you how to do it, if you ever have to be second man on a climb—and it will keep you from looking down, also!”