'Tush!' he cried; 'it is thy heart that fails thee, and 'tis too late now
to change counsel. We have fifteen minutes yet to win or lose with, and
if we gain the cliff-top in that time we shall have an hour's start, or
more, for they will take all that to search the under-cliff. And Maskew,
too, will keep them in check a little, while they try to bring the life
back to so good a man. But if we fall, why, we shall fall together, and
outwit their cunning. So shut thy eyes, and keep them tight until I bid
thee open them.' With that he caught me up again, and I shut my eyes
firm, rebuking myself for my faint-heartedness, and not telling him how
much my foot hurt me. In a minute I knew from Elzevir's steps that he
had left the turf and was upon the chalk. Now I do not believe that there
were half a dozen men beside in England who would have ventured up that
path, even free and untrammelled, and not a man in all the world to do it
with a full-grown lad in his arms. Yet Elzevir made no bones of it, nor
spoke a single word; only he went very slow, and I felt him scuffle with
his foot as he set it forward, to make sure he was putting it down firm.
I said nothing, not wishing to distract him from his terrible task, and
held my breath, when I could, so that I might lie quieter in his arms.
Thus he went on for a time that seemed without end, and yet was really
but a minute or two; and by degrees I felt the wind, that we could scarce
perceive at all on the under-cliff, blow fresher and cold on the
cliff-side.
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