, very gently, it is true, but still sufficient to render it
necessary to pause until the oscillation had ceased before attempting to
take the measurement; also the torsion of the rope set up a slow
revolving movement, so that, even when at length the oscillation ceased,
it was only with difficulty that the correct measurement was taken and
recorded in the book. This difficulty recurred as every additional
five-foot length of rope was paid out, so that each measurement cost
fully five minutes of precious time. Moreover, despite the padding of
the rope, Harry soon began to find it cutting into his flesh so
unpleasantly that he had grave doubts whether he would be able to endure
it and hold out until the bottom, far below, should be reached.

At length, when about forty feet of rope had been very cautiously paid
out, and some eight measurements taken, the peon who was superintending
the operation of lowering was suddenly seen to stiffen his body, as
though something out of the common had attracted his attention; he
raised one hand as a sign to the other two to cease lowering, and gazed
intently downward for several seconds. Then he signed for the lowering
to be continued, and, to the astonishment of the others, wriggled
himself back from the edge of the cliff until he had room to stand
upright, when, scrambling hastily to his feet, he sprang to the two men
who were lowering, and hissed between his set teeth:

"Lower! lower away as quickly and as steadily as you can, my brothers;
the life of the young _Senor_ depends upon your speed and steadiness.
The rope has stranded--cut by the edge of the rock, most probably--and
unless you can lower the _muchacho_ to the bottom ere it parts
altogether, he will be dashed to pieces!"

Meanwhile Harry, hanging there swinging and revolving in the bight of
the rope, was not a little astonished when he found himself being
lowered without pause, save such momentary jerks as were occasioned by
the passage of the clips round the bar and over the cliff edge, and he
instinctively glanced upward to see if he could discover what was
wrong--for that something had gone amiss he felt tolerably certain. For
a few seconds his eye sought vainly for an explanation, then his gaze
was arrested by the sight of two severed ends of one strand of the rope
standing out at a distance of about thirty feet above his head, and he
knew!--knew that the strength of the slender rope had been decreased by
one thi