Helen!" he called breathlessly.

She turned her head and looked up at him. Her face was white, but she
did not scream.

"Helen!" cried Albert, again. "Helen, do you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Are you badly hurt?"

"No. No, I don't think so."

"Can you hold on just as you are for a few minutes?"

"Yes, I--I think so."

"You've got to, you know. Here! You're not going to faint, are you?"

"No, I--I don't think I am."

"You can't! You mustn't! Here! Don't you do it! Stop!"

There was just a trace of his grandfather in the way he shouted the
order. Whether or not the vigor of the command produced the result is a
question, but at any rate she did not faint.

"Now you stay right where you are," he ordered again. "And hang on as
tight as you can. I'm coming down."

Come down he did, swinging over the brink with his face to the bank,
dropping on his toes to the upper edge of the slope and digging boots
and fingers into the clay to prevent sliding further.

"Hang on!" he cautioned, over his shoulder. "I'll be there in a second.
There! Now wait until I get my feet braced. Now give me your hand--your
left hand. Hold on with your right."

Slowly and cautiously, clinging to his hand, he pulled her away from the
edge of the precipice and helped her to scramble up to where he clung.
There she lay and panted. He looked at her apprehensively.

"Don't go and faint now, or any foolishness like that," he ordered
sharply.

"No, no, I won't. I'll try not to. But how are we ever going to climb
up--up there?"

Above them and at least four feet out of reach, even if they stood up,
and that would be a frightfully risky proceeding, the sod projected over
their heads like the eaves of a house.

Helen glanced up at it and shuddered.

"Oh, how CAN we?" she gasped.

"We can't. And we won't try."

"Shall we call for help?"

"Not much use. Nobody to hear us. Besides, we can always do that if
we have to. I think I see a way out of the mess. If we can't get up,
perhaps we can get down."

"Get DOWN?"

"Yes, it isn't all as steep as it is here. I believe we might sort of
zig-zag down if we were careful. You hold on here just as you are; I'm
going to see what it looks like around this next point."

The "point" was merely a projection of the bluff about twenty feet away.
He crawfished along the face of the slope, until he could see beyond it.
Helen kept urging him to be careful--oh, be careful!

"Of course I'll be careful," he s