I said,
'Now, just try to crawl into it.'

He raised himself on his arms and crawled in with difficulty. His legs
dragged after him. I could see he was in great pain. But still, he
managed it.

I planted my foot in the first noose. 'You must sit still,' I said,
breathless. 'I am going back to haul you up.'

'Are you strong enough, Lois?'

'With Elsie to help me, yes. I often stroked a four at Girton.'

'I can trust you,' he answered. It thrilled me that he said so.

I began my hazardous journey; I mounted the rope by the nooses--one,
two, three, four, counting them as I mounted. I did not dare to look up
or down as I did so, lest I should grow giddy and fall, but kept my eyes
fixed firmly always on the one noose in front of me. My brain swam: the
rope swayed and creaked. Twenty, thirty, forty! Foot after foot, I
slipped them in mechanically, taking up with me the longer coil whose
ends were attached to the cage and Harold. My hands trembled; it was
ghastly, swinging there between earth and heaven. Forty-five, forty-six,
forty-seven-- I knew there were forty-eight of them. At last, after some
weeks, as it seemed, I reached the summit. Tremulous and half dead, I
prised myself over the edge with my hands, and knelt once more on the
hill beside Elsie.

She was white, but attentive. 'What next, Brownie?' Her voice quivered.

I looked about me. I was too faint and shaky after my perilous ascent to
be fit for work, but there was no help for it. What could I use as a
pulley? Not a tree grew near; but the stone jammed in the fissure might
once more serve my purpose. I tried it again. It had borne my weight;
was it strong enough to bear the precious weight of Harold? I tugged at
it, and thought so. I passed the rope round it like a pulley, and then
tied it about my own waist. I had a happy thought: I could use myself as
a windlass. I turned on my feet for a pivot. Elsie helped me to pull.
'Up you go!' I cried, cheerily. We wound slowly, for fear of shaking
him. Bit by bit, I could feel the cage rise gradually from the ground;
its weight, taken so, with living capstan and stone axle, was less than
I should have expected. But the pulley helped us, and Elsie, spurred by
need, put forth more reserve of nervous strength than I could easily
have believed lay in that tiny body. I twisted myself round and round,
close to the edge, so as to look over from time to time, but not at all
quickly, for fear of dizziness. The rope stra