ssed on steadily. Charles, seeing
that she would not go back, ceased his entreaties, fearing to confuse or
alarm her. Her hands caught strong boughs with certainty; the tiny twigs
slapped her face spitefully. Here and there she flung herself flat
against the rocky surface and crept guardedly; then she was up dancing
from one vantage-point to another, until finally she paused, clinging to
a sapling slightly above Holton. When she had got her breath she called
an "All right!" that echoed and reechoed through the valley.

"You thought you could do it, didn't you?" she said mockingly; "and now
I've had to spoil my clothes to get you off that shelf."

"For God's sake, stay where you are! There's nothing you can do for me.
The boys have gone round to bring a rope, and until they come you must
stay right there!"

Phil, still panting, laughed derisively.

"You're perfectly ridiculous--pinned to a rock like Prometheus--Simeon
on his pillar! But it wouldn't be dignified for you to let the boys haul
you up by a rope. You'd never live that down. They'll be years getting a
rope; and it would be far from comfortable to sit there all night."

While she chaffed she was measuring distances and calculating chances.
The shelf which had caught him was the broader part of a long edge of
outcrop. Phil beat among the bushes to determine how much was exposed,
but the ledge was too narrow for a foothold.

"Please stop there and don't move!" Holton pleaded. "If you break your
neck, I'd never forgive myself, and I'd never be forgiven."

Phil laughed her scorn of his fears and began creeping upward again. The
situation appealed to her both by reason of its danger and its humor;
there was nothing funnier than the idea of Charlie Holton immured on a
rock, waiting to be hauled up from the top of the cliff. She meant to
extricate him from his difficulties: she had set herself the task; it
was like a dare. Her quick eyes searching the rough slope noted a tree
between her and the shelf where Holton clung, watching her and
continuing his entreaties not to heed him, but to look out for her own
safety. Its roots were well planted in an earthy cleft and its
substantial air inspired confidence. It had been off the line of his
precipitous descent and he had already tried to reach it; but in the
cautious tiptoeing to which his efforts were limited by the slight
margin of safety afforded by the rock he could not touch it.

"If I swing down from that tre