g shot down to the bottom and over the edge.

Returning once more to the friendly ledge, which, after the dangers he
had so recently passed through, seemed to afford a position of absolute
safety, George began to cast about in his mind for some means of
overcoming this new difficulty, and at last he hit upon the idea of
making a narrow pathway up the slope by pulling up the grass by the
roots. This, however, he soon found would be a work of considerable
time; but he also discovered that it would be possible, without any
great difficulty, to remove small patches of just sufficient size to
give a precarious, but comparatively secure, foothold, and this he at
once proceeded to do.

Half an hour of arduous labour in this direction enabled him to safely
reach the top of the slope, where, to his great gratification, he
discovered another platform of rock, about six feet wide. Passing along
this, he came suddenly upon an irregular fissure in the rocky face of
the precipice. This fissure was about four feet wide at the bottom, the
walls sloping inwards, like a roof, until they met at a height of seven
or eight feet from the ground. George at once unhesitatingly entered
the opening, and found that it widened somewhat as it receded from the
face of the rock, until at a distance of some five and twenty feet
inwards it abruptly terminated in a small, cave-like aperture, some six
feet in height, and perhaps twelve in diameter, being, as nearly as he
could ascertain, by the sense of touch only, roughly of a circular form.

George was inexpressibly thankful that he had been guided to this place
of refuge, for here, he resolved, the party should pass the night, as
they easily could, with the most perfect safety. It was by this time
far too dark to attempt the awful risk of a passage up the precipice,
and he felt sure that, even could they succeed in safely reaching the
top, their pursuers would be found there, awaiting them. But this
cavernous fissure afforded them the very shelter they required; its
existence was, in all probability, absolutely a secret; and, even were
it not so, it was inaccessible to all but those who chose to risk their
necks in an effort to reach it; and, lastly, they could seek in it the
rest they so absolutely needed, without the haunting fear of rolling
over the precipice in their sleep.

Thinking thus, Leicester rapidly, but cautiously, made his way back to
Tom, whom he found in a state of the greates