he recollection of the food he had left behind
tempted him to return.

"I might get it, and bring the basket down," he said. "No, I won't try
it again; it's too dangerous. I don't want another slip. Besides,
there must be a way down farther, if I could find it. Of course! I
knew it!" he cried, as he gazed over once more, farther in toward the
head of the little chasm, which looked as though the rock had been split
from top to bottom.

He rubbed his hands, for some thirty feet below there was certainly a
narrow possible place, and from there perhaps another might be found.

"If one could get down," he said to himself; but it did not look
possible; the rock was out even of the perpendicular, and no sane person
would attempt to drop from the edge so great a distance as that.

At that moment a piece of slaty rock came sliding down from on high, to
fall with a crash and splinter on the rock at his feet.

"Must have loosened that," he said; "good job I didn't get it on my
head. Oh!"

It was a cry of rage as much as of alarm, for there, following his track
exactly, was Ram, who had returned repentant, alone, with his basket, to
miss his prisoner, search, find the opening, and without hesitation to
come down the cliff in pursuit.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

For the moment Archy Raystoke was puzzled--completely taken aback. This
was something upon which he had not counted; and he stood there looking
up, as he saw the boy descending with a far greater show of activity
than he could have displayed.

Naturally, the first thought was of further flight, but he had already
convinced himself that he was again a prisoner, and as, after another
glance down at the ledge below to his left, he looked up at Ram, he set
his teeth, and laughed in a way that did not promise well for his
pursuer.

"What is he coming down for?" he said to himself, as his teeth began to
set fast and his hands involuntarily to clench. "Does he think he is
going to drag me up there again? He had better not try."

Meanwhile Ram was descending rapidly, and sending little ambassadors
down before him in the shape of pieces of rock and shale, all of which
arrived at the ledge in a very inimical way, bounding off, scattering in
fragments, or falling with a heavy thud.

From time to time Ram looked down at his escaped prisoner, and then
devoted himself to the places where he should never plant his feet,
achieving the whole in the most fearless manner,