eep out. Leave my affairs alone. A
fellow whose father and mother have done what yours have, isn't in the
best position to throw stones at other people."

Felix Bauer long years afterwards confessed to the dearest friend he
had, that in that moment he had the nearest approach to the thought of
murder and hate he ever knew. But before he could reply to Van Shaw's
brutality he saw him stagger and reel and throw up his arms on the edge
of the rock. He heard him cry out, "For God's sake, Bauer!" and then he
fell backward and disappeared over the cliff.

For a second Bauer stood in his place smitten with horror. He was
totally ignorant of the character of the ground where Van Shaw had been
standing and of what lay below. Evidently a shelving piece of the rotten
sandstone had broken off. How much of the edge was dangerous it was
impossible to tell there in the dark. He uttered one loud cry of "Help!"
and then flung himself down full length and dragged himself up to the
place where Van Shaw had disappeared.

Just as he reached the edge, he heard fragments of the rock go rattling
down and a sound as of a heavy body falling somewhere. He peered over
fearfully. He shouted again. He looked, straining down, and it seemed to
him that about twenty feet below he could see a huddled-up body lying on
a projecting ledge.

And then Felix Bauer did as brave or as foolhardy a thing as anyone ever
did. It was partly to punish himself for the murderous feeling he had
entertained a moment before that he now said, "Good God! I must save him
now. Help me, God! Help me!"

He swung about on the edge of the ragged rock and let his feet down. He
felt a projecting knob of something, and then for a sickening second he
paused and shouted again and then he let go, hugging the face of the
cliff. As he went down, he began to realise thankfully that the cliff
was rough and irregular. His hands were running blood, but he did not
know it. As he felt resting places for his feet, or anything for his
hands to clutch, he sobbed, "God help me! God help me!"

He was down at last near enough to see that Van Shaw had fallen in a
bent-over position on a shelf of rock, a little more than wide enough to
hold his body. He called to him but received no answer. At last he was
near enough to drop down on the ledge but as he was about to do so, Van
Shaw, with a groan of pain, turned over, and began to roll towards the
edge.

Bauer desperately let go of everything, f