The Crystal Hunters Part 54

"Yes, much; but for me, not you. The other will take longer, but it is safe."

"Then try that way," said Saxe eagerly; for he had quite recovered his nerve now, and would have been ready to jump to right or left had he been told.

"No, my lad; you are tired, and in an awkward place. My second way might fail too. It was to tear up my handkerchief and make it into a string to throw up to you, so that you could afterwards draw up the rope. No: my string might break. But I am as foolish as you are, and as wanting in resource. There," he continued, after a few moments'

pause, "what a boaster I am! I did not even think of cutting a piece off the rope, unravelling it, and making it into a string."

"Yes, you could easily make that into a string," said Saxe anxiously.

"No, that would be a pity," said Dale; "and a practised climber ought not to think of such a thing. I ought," he said, scanning the rock carefully, "to be able to get up there above you, fasten the rope to some block, and then let it down to you."

"No, don't do that!" cried Saxe excitedly: "it is so easy to get up, and so hard to get down."

"Not with a rope," said Dale cheerily. "Let's see. Suppose I join you the way you came, and jump to you? Is there room for both?"

"No, no!" cried Saxe excitedly.

"Well, if I climb out to where you jumped, I can hand you the rope, you can pa.s.s it round the ice-axe, and slip down with it double and then draw it off. No: it is not long enough, and we should have to leave the axe behind. I must climb above you, boy; so here goes."

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

THE CRYSTAL GROTTO.

Dale threw down the rope from his shoulder, took off hat and jacket, replaced the rope like a scarf, and then stood looking upwards.

"Oh, pray be careful!" cried Saxe, rather faintly.

"Yes, miss," said Dale mockingly. "Why don't you come and take hold of my hand! There, boy, I have climbed before now, and I'll be as careful as I can. Hah! that's the better way. 'Take it coolly,' Saxe, as Jacob Faithful used to say. I'll soon have you down."

He went along the chasm a few yards, and then began to climb up the nearly perpendicular face of the rock, taking advantage of every niche and projection, and gradually getting higher and higher, but always farther away from where Saxe hung watching him with lips apart, and in constant dread lest there should be a sudden slip and a fall.

"And that would make it horrible," thought the lad. "What should I do then?"

Dale climbed on talking the while when he did not give vent to a good-humoured grunt over some extra difficult bit.

Saxe said nothing, for he felt hurt. It seemed to him that his companion was treating him like a child, and saying all kinds of moral things in a light way, so as to keep up his spirits; and, as Dale saw the effect his words produced, he said less.

"Rather a tough bit of climbing," he cried, after a few minutes'

silence; "but I've had worse to do: for I've gone over pieces like this when there has been a fall of a thousand feet or so beneath me, and that makes one mind one's p's and q's, Saxe--precipices and queer spots--eh?

But I shall soon do this. All it wants is a little, coolness and determination."

"Why are you going so far along that way!" cried Saxe, who liked this tone better.

"Because the line of the stratum runs this way, and higher up there is another goes off at an angle right above where you are; and there is a projection, if I can reach it, which will do for the rope: I could see it all from down below."

Saxe watched him breathlessly till he was on a level with the opening by which he clung, but fully forty yards away. There he turned and began to climb back, and always rising higher till he was some thirty feet higher than the opening, but still considerably to Saxe's right.

"Now," he said quietly, as he stood with his face close to the rock: "here is the spot, if I can get the rope over that projection."

"But then I could not reach it," said Saxe.

"I'll see about that," said Dale, carefully holding on with one hand while he drew the coil of rope over his head,--no easy task, with his feet resting upon a very narrow projection, and the rock against which he pressed himself nearly straight up and down.

"That's right," he said, as he let the coil rest upon one arm, and set the end free. "Now, Saxe, what's to be done next? There's a block up there if I could get a loop thrown over it; but la.s.soing rocks was not included in my education, and I'm afraid it will be rather difficult with the left hand."

To Saxe it seemed to be impossible, and he watched intently as he saw his companion double a portion of the rope so as to make a large loop, and to tie this he had to hold the twisted hemp right above his head, pressing his chest against the rock the while so as to preserve his balance, and more than once Saxe gave a gasp as it seemed to him that the venturous man was about to fall backward.

But he succeeded, and then let the loop and his arms drop down.

"Hard work," he said. "Five minutes' rest. Curious how wearying it is to hold your limbs in a fresh position. Now then," he continued, "I've got to throw that loop over the block up there left-handed. How many tries will it take?"

Saxe remained silent, for he was by no means hopeful; and he watched intently as Dale loosened the rings upon his arm and gathered two or three in his left hand, which he dropped again, while with his right he tried to get a good grip of the rock where there was scarcely any hold at all.

"Now," he said, as calmly as if he were about to perform some feat with a quoit on level ground, instead of being balanced up in a perilous position, where the slightest loss of equilibrium meant a fall on to rugged stones of over a hundred feet.

As he spoke he threw up the braced loop so truly that it went exactly over the projection, and several rings ran off from his arm and hung down.

"Not a bad throw," he said quietly. "I didn't know I was so clever, Saxe. The question is, will it hold?"

The test was soon applied, for he drew the rope in slowly, till the slack was all gathered in, tightened it more and more, and the loop glided off the projection and fell.

"If at first you don't succeed--eh, Saxe? You know the rest?" cried Dale, as he drew up the loop and coiled the rope on his arm again. "I must get it farther on."

He threw again, and once more la.s.soed the projection; but the loop dropped off this time with the weight of the rope, and he had to begin again making all his preparations as carefully as a man does in some perilous position.

Another throw, which proved a complete miss. Then another and another, each proving to be less accurate than the one which had gone before.

"Five minutes' rest," said Dale quietly. "My arm is getting tired."

A dead silence reigned then for a few minutes, during which time a dark shadow glided across the deep gully, and they heard the faint whizzing sound of the wings of an eagle, whose keen, cruel eyes looked down at them as if seeing prey.

"Now," cried Dale, "I must do this, Saxe. Don't be impatient with me, boy; and if it's any comfort to you, I may tell you that I am in a far worse position than you."

"Yes; I know," said Saxe hoa.r.s.ely. "I wish I could help."

"Do so another time by not getting yourself into such a sc.r.a.pe. Hush!

don't speak: I'm going to throw."

The loop went flying up; but at the same moment Saxe saw Dale slip a little, and it was only by a violent effort that he saved himself from falling, while, as a consequence, the loop missed again, and fell to the full length of the rings off the thrower's arm.

Saxe drew a deep breath, and watched now with a growing sensation of hopelessness as he saw each effort made, and every one after deliberate and careful gathering up of the rope and hanging it in rings upon the left arm. But no matter how he tried Dale's casts grew more and more erring, till, quite in despair, he stood fast, resting his weary arm, and said with an apologetic air--

"I wish I were not so clumsy, Saxe. I'm afraid I must try some fresh plan."

There was a long pause now, and Dale seemed to be thinking.

"Are you quite safe?" he said at last.