And how he
did it in such a narrow strait I know not; but he turned round, and lying
down himself, thrust his hand firmly in my back, pressing me closer to
the cliff. Yet it was none too soon, for if he had not held me tight, I
should have flung myself down in sheer despair to get quit of that
dreadful sickness.
'Keep thine eyes shut, John,' he said, 'and count up numbers loud to me,
that I may know thou art not turning faint.' So I gave out, 'One, two,
three,' and while I went on counting, heard him repeating to himself,
though his words seemed thin and far off: 'We must have taken ten minutes
to get here, and in five more they will be on the under-cliff; and if we
ever reach the top, who knows but they have left a guard! No, no, they
will not leave a guard, for not a man knows of the Zigzag; and, if they
knew, they would not guess that we should try it. We have but fifty yards
to go to win, and now this cursed giddy fit has come upon the child, and
he will fall and drag me with him; or they will see us from below, and
pick us off like sitting guillemots against the cliff-face.'
So he talked to himself, and all the while I would have given a world to
pluck up heart and creep on farther; yet could not, for the deadly
sweating fear that had hold of me. Thus I lay with my face to the cliff,
and Elzevir pushing firmly in my back; and the thing that frightened me
most was that there was nothing at all for the hand to take hold of, for
had there been a piece of string, or even a thread of cotton, stretched
along to give a semblance of support, I think I could have done it; but
there was only the cliff-wall, sheer and white, against that narrowest
way, with never cranny to put a finger into.
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