"If you do you will knock me to the bottom, so just you hold on till I tells you."
Jem kept up his jocular way of speaking; but if any one could have looked on, he would have seen that his face was curiously mottled with sallow, while his hands were trembling when at liberty, and that there was a curiously wild, set look in his eyes.
"There, Mas" Don," he said cheerily, as he finished climbing sidewise till he was exactly beneath. "Now, one moment. That"s it."
As he spoke he drew himself up a little, taking fast hold of the stem of a bush, and of a projecting stone, while he found foot-hold in a wide crevice.
"Now then, rest your foot on my shoulders. There you are. That"s the way. Two heads is better than one."
"Can you bear my weight, Jem?"
"Can I bear your weight? Why? You may stand there for a week. Now just you rest your wristies a bit, and then go on climbing down, just as if I warn"t here."
The minute before Don had felt that he could bear the strain no longer.
Now the despairing sensation which came over him had gone, his heart felt lighter as he stood on Jem"s shoulders, and sought another hold for his hands lower down. The wild, fluttering pulsation ceased, and he grew composed.
"I"m rested now, Jem," said Don.
"Of course you are, my lad. Well, then, now you can climb down aside me. "Tarn"t so much farther to the bottom."
"Can you reach out far enough for me to come between you and the rock?"
"Just you try, Mas" Don."
By this time Don had found a fresh hold for his feet; and nerving himself, he descended slowly, Jem forcing himself out, so that there was enough room for any one to pa.s.s; but as Don cleared him, and got right below, the bush to which Jem clung with one hand came slowly out of the interstices of the stones, and but for the exercise of a large amount of muscular power and rigidity of will, he would have swung round and fallen headlong.
"I"m all right now, Jem!" cried Don from below.
"Glad of it, my lad," muttered Jem, "because I arn"t."
"Come along down now."
"How, Mas" Don?" said Jem grimly.
"The same way as I did."
"Oh! All right; but the bush I held on by is gone."
"Well take hold of another."
"Just you get from under me, Mas" Don."
"Why? What do you mean?"
"I"m too heavy to ketch like a cricket ball. That"s all, my lad."
"Oh, Jem, don"t say you are in danger."
"Not I, my lad, if you don"t want me to; but it is awk"ard. Stand clear," he shouted. "I"m coming down. No, I arn"t," he said directly after, as he made a tremendous effort to reach a tough stem below, failed, and then dropped and caught it, and swung first by one hand and then by two.
"I say, Mas" Don, I thought I was gone."
"You made my heart seem to jump into my mouth."
"Did I, lad? Well, it was awk"ard. I was scared lest I should knock you off. Felt just as I did when the chain broke, and you could see the link opening, and a big sugar-hogshead threatening to come down. All right now, my lad. Let"s get on down. Think we"re birds" nesting, Mas"
Don, and it"ll be all right."
Don had to nerve himself once more, and they steadily lowered themselves from tuft to tuft, and from stone to stone, with more confidence, till they were about thirty feet from the foot, when farther progress became impossible, for, in place of being perpendicular, the cliff face sloped inward for some distance before becoming perpendicular once more.
"Well, I do call that stoopid," said Jem, as he stared helplessly at Don. "What are we going to do now?"
"I don"t know, Jem. If we had a bit of rope we could easily descend."
"And if we"d got wings, Mas" Don, we might fly."
"We must climb back, Jem, as--Look here, would these trees bear us?"
"Not likely," said Jem, staring hard at a couple of young kauri pines, which grew up at the foot of the precipice, and whose fine pointed tops were within a few feet of where they clung.
"But if we could reach them and get fast hold, they would bend and let us down."
"They"d let us down," said Jem drily; "but I don"t know "bout bending."
Don clung to the face of the rock, hesitating, and wondering whether by any possibility they could get down another way, and finding that it was absolutely hopeless, he made up his mind to act.
"It is next to impossible to climb up, Jem," he said.
"Yes, Mas" Don."
"And we can"t get down."
"No, Mas" Don. We shall have to live here for a bit, only I don"t know how we"re going to eat and sleep."
"Jem."
"Yes, Mas" Don."
"I"m going to jump into that tree."
"No, Mas" Don, you mustn"t risk it."
"And if it breaks--"
"Never mind about the tree breaking. What I don"t like is, s"pose you break."
"I shall go first, and you can try afterwards."
"No, no, Mas" Don; let me try first."