e had never encountered before.

She heard the soft wash of the sea far below her above the sickening
thudding of her heart as she crept forward round that terrible bend. She
heard with an acuteness that made her marvel the long sweet note of the
nightingale swelling among the bushes above. She also heard a watch
ticking with amazing loudness close to her ear, and was aware of a very
firm hand that grasped her shoulder, impelling her forward. There was no
resisting that steady pressure. She crept on step by step because she
could not do otherwise; and when she had rounded that awful corner at
last and would fain have stopped to rest after the ordeal, she found that
she must needs go on, for he would not suffer any pause.

He had followed her so closely that his hold upon her had never varied.
There seemed to her to be something electric in the very touch of his
fingers. She was fully conscious of the fact that she moved by a strength
outside her own.

"Go on!" he said. "Go on! There's Columbus waiting for you. Can you see
the steps? They're close here. They're a bit rough, I'm afraid. I made
them myself. But you'll manage them."

She came to the steps. The path had widened somewhat, and the dreadful
sense of sheer depth below her was less insistent. Nevertheless, the way
was far from easy, the steps being little more than deep notches in the
cliff. It slanted inwards here however, and she set herself to achieve
the ascent with more assurance.

Her guide came immediately behind her. She felt his hand touch her at
every step she took. Just at the last, realizing the nearness of the
summit and safety, she tried to hasten, and in a moment slipped. He
grabbed her instantly, but she could not recover her footing though she
made a frantic effort to do so. She sprawled against the cliff, clutching
madly at some tufts of grass and weed above her, while the man behind her
gripped and held her there.

"Don't struggle!" he said. "You're all right. You won't fall. Let go of
that stuff and hang on to me!"

"I can't!" she said. "I can't!"

"Let go of that stuff and hang on to me!" he said again, and the words
were short and sharp. "Left hand first! Put your arm round my neck, and
then get round and hang on with the other! It's only a few feet more. I
can manage it."

They were the most definite instructions she had ever received in her
life, and the most difficult to obey. She hung, clinging with both hands,
still vainly se