Guy and Melton sprang to their feet in amazement. They could hardly believe they had heard aright.
“What can he mean?” cried Guy.
He seized the rope and started up hand over hand, placing his feet on the rough places in the wall.
Melton joined him on the ledge a moment later. The torch he had left there was still burning, and its light showed the colonel where they were.
“Watch sharp below there,” he cried, and almost instantly Guy felt something dangling before his face. He put out his hand and clutched a thin cord.
“By Jove, Melton, it’s the fishing lines!” he exclaimed. “The colonel has tied them together.”
No directions were needed to tell them what to do next. Guy loosened the hook and fastened the line to it securely.
“Go ahead,” he shouted to the colonel, and the rope instantly began to ascend.
In less than five minutes, though it really seemed an hour, the colonel signaled down that all was ready.
It was a perilous undertaking to go up the face of the cliff with nothing but a smooth rope to hold to, but at Guy’s bidding Forbes made the attempt.