ith all his
might, and then we listened as we had listened before, to hear it at
last strike water at a profound depth, with the same roar of echoes to
make us shrink shuddering back.

"It is the same place, Tom," I said, speaking hoarsely, for this was
another damp to our hopes.

There was apparently no chance even of reaching the rocky point where we
had stood the day before, for that point stood out alone, and I could
not see how it could be reached; but in a dull, despondent way, I
thought that we would try to the last; and shrinking back a few yards
from the edge of the precipice, we began to climb along the side, in the
hope of finding some outlet in that direction; for could we but reach
that point by any means we were safe.

Ten minutes' climbing in a state of extreme horror, with the loose
fragments of rock slipping from beneath our hands and feet, to roll
rattling over the edge of the vast chasm, and then we were brought to a
standstill; for there, right in front, was a bare, smooth, perpendicular
wall of rock, inexorable as fate itself.

We turned and began to climb back along the horrid slope, when, with a
sensation of horror that I hardly dare to recall, I felt my legs slip,
my hands, torn, wet, and bleeding as they were, to glide over the stone
to which I clung; and, with a feeble cry for aid to Tom, I gave myself
up for lost.

With a shriek like that which might have been expected to have emanated
from some wild beast, Tom leaped to my side, caught at me, and then,
clinging together, we continued our downward course for what seemed an
interminable length of time, when there was a sudden stoppage. Tom's
feet rested in a cleft of the rock, and he held me fast, as I lay
gasping, with my legs hanging for some distance over the frightful
chasm.

For full five minutes we did not either of us move, since it seemed that
the slightest attempt to alter our position must result in a plunge into
the darkness yawning to receive us.

One candle was extinguished, but the other lay guttering and flaring
some twenty feet above us, wasting rapidly, and casting its feeble,
weird light upon where we clung.

We neither of us spoke, but softly feeling about, I at length got my
fingers in a chink of rock, which gave me courage to move my legs, so
that at last they rested upon a rough point or knob. Then, by Tom's
guiding, my other hand found a hole, and by an effort I climbed on to
the slope, to lie panting and wai