confess, that if I could think of
any other way to get the rope, I wouldn't try it."

"If you can cross that way, what's the reason that Will Atkins an' Jack
Spaniard can't do it too?" inquired Friday.

"'Cause, after I get over an' come back, nobody will ever cross the gully
that way again. We'll pull the limb down. Now, you hold the lantern up
high an' give me all the light you can. It's mighty dark up there, an' I
don't care about missin' my hold an' fallin down on them rocks."

The chief scrambled up the cliff to the tree of which he had spoken, and
began to ascend it. He worked his way up with the agility of a squirrel,
and presently disappeared from the view of his man below. When he came
in sight again, he was on the limb that stretched out over the chasm,
and which was bending and cracking beneath his weight in a manner that
made Friday extremely nervous. But Sam resolutely held on his way, and
finally swung himself safely into the branches of the tree on the
opposite side. After securing the rope, he threw one end of it to
Friday, made the other fast to the limb on which he had crossed the
gully, and a few moments afterward he slid down the bluff and seated
himself on the ground beside his companion, to recover his breath.

"I'll show them fellers what they are about," said he, wiping the big
drops of perspiration from his face. "I'll larn 'em how to get up a
mutiny, after promisin', honor bright, to obey all orders. Now, if we've
got muscle enough to break that limb, we are all right."

"Couldn't Atkins make a bridge, by cuttin' down one of them trees?"
asked Friday.

"No, he couldn't. The trees on that side won't fall across the gully,
'cause they all lean the other way. Ketch hold, now, an' pull fur life."

The governor and his man grasped the ropes, and, exerting all their
strength, suddenly found themselves lying flat in the path. The limb,
unable to resist the strain brought to bear upon it, parted with a noise
like the report of a cannon, and fell crashing into the gully, carrying
with it a perfect avalanche of rocks and earth which it detached from
the opposite bluff. That bridge was destroyed, and there was no way of
escape for the mutineers.

The next thing was to untie the rope from the limb which lay at the
bottom of the chasm. The only way it could be accomplished was for one
of the Crusoe men to go down into the gully, and this Friday volunteered
to do. Accordingly, the end of the rope wh