Antonio.
Howsoever narrow my escape had been, the fact remained that I had come
out from my encounter with Death safe and unharmed; but on Fray
Antonio's shoulder we could but dread that Death already had laid his
hand. And that he knew how close to him Death was standing we could see
by a certain elate and confident air of courage in his bearing, and by
the wonderful tenderness and sweetness of his smile. Truly, never did I
know a man so ready at all times as this man was to lay down the life
that God had given him; holding it but as a trust that might at any
moment be called back to the source whence it came. Yet because it was a
trust, meant to be put to useful purposes, Fray Antonio valued his life
and cared for it. And at this time it was he himself who devised a plan
by which it might be saved.

The ropes which were fastened to the chain, being held stoutly on the
one side by Fray Antonio and on the other by Young, fortunately had
broken as the great weight of the chain suddenly had come upon them, and
had broken so close to the knots which held them that nearly the whole
of their length remained. The plan that the monk now devised for coming
across to us--and a bold heart was required even to think of this daring
enterprise--was that with the two ropes fastened about his body at one
end, and held by all of us at the other, he should swing down into the
chasm and far under the promontory of rock on which we stood, and then
that we should haul him up to us. The great difficulty in the way of
executing this plan was in getting the line across between us; its great
danger lay in the probability--notwithstanding the depth of the recess
beneath us--that he would be dashed against the rocks with such force as
to kill him outright.

But Young, who usually was ready for any emergency that might arise,
roused out a ball of twine that was a part of our stores, and one end of
this he made fast to a fragment of rock, and by a strong heave of it
landed it safe on the other side; whereafter the rigging of the double
rope across was an easy matter.

Very carefully, testing the knots as he made them, Fray Antonio fastened
the double line about his body, beneath his shoulders, and so stood
ready on the edge of the chasm; while we four stood holding the line,
with all our muscles braced for the strain that would come upon it as
he swung downward. For a moment he paused, with his face turned upward
while his lips moved. Then he w