of the danger was at an
end, and I was so fortunate as to be never again exposed to any violent
concussion. Soon after I must have passed within a little distance of a
bush of wallflower, for the scent of it came over me with that
impression of reality which characterises scents in darkness. This made
me a second landmark, the ledge being my first. I began accordingly to
compute intervals of time: so much to the ledge, so much again to the
wallflower, so much more below. If I were not at the bottom of the rock,
I calculated I must be near indeed to the end of the rope, and there was
no doubt that I was not far from the end of my own resources. I began to
be light-headed and to be tempted to let go--now arguing that I was
certainly arrived within a few feet of the level and could safely risk a
fall, anon persuaded I was still close at the top and it was idle to
continue longer on the rock. In the midst of which I came to a bearing
on plain ground, and had nearly wept aloud. My hands were as good as
flayed, my courage entirely exhausted, and, what with the long strain
and the sudden relief, my limbs shook under me with more than the
violence of ague, and I was glad to cling to the rope.

But this was no time to give way. I had (by God's single mercy) got
myself alive out of that fortress; and now I had to try to get the
others, my comrades. There was about a fathom of rope to spare; I got it
by the end, and searched the whole ground thoroughly for anything to
make it fast to. In vain: the ground was broken and stony, but there
grew not there so much as a bush of furze.

"Now then," thought I to myself, "here begins a new lesson, and I
believe it will prove richer than the first. I am not strong enough to
keep this rope extended. If I do not keep it extended the next man will
be dashed against the precipice. There is no reason why he should have
my extravagant good luck. I see no reason why he should not fall--nor
any place for him to fall on but my head."

From where I was now standing there was occasionally visible, as the
fog lightened, a lamp in one of the barrack windows, which gave me a
measure of the height he had to fall, and the horrid force that he must
strike me with. What was yet worse, we had agreed to do without signals:
every so many minutes by Laclas' watch another man was to be started
from the battlements. Now, I had seemed to myself to be about
half-an-hour in my descent, and it seemed near as long ag