he place where he had
before stood, then he cautiously commenced descending still lower.

"What donkeys we have been!" suddenly exclaimed Elihu; "the coil of
stuff he has got won't drag any of us up, we must make a rope for
ourselves."

We quickly had our knives going, and soon had Bruin completely flayed,
and his hide cut up into short strips joined together. All the time we
were at work, we every now and then looked up to see how Sam was getting
on. The fear was that he might slip on the frozen rock, and come
toppling down unable to save himself. Just as we had finished our rope,
a shout from him proclaimed to us that he had reached the lowest ledge
he could hope to gain. Without a moment's delay he began to unwind his
line. It was a very thin one, and had numerous knots and joints in it.
As we watched it, we were in doubt whether the end would reach us; it
just came down above our heads. By leaping up we could touch it; but as
to making a rope fast to the end, that was out of the question. Sam
soon discovered our difficulty. The rope was drawn up a little, and
then down it came, so that we could make fast to it the end of our newly
formed bear's-skin rope. "Haul away!" we sang out, and up it went.

There was a doubt, however, whether that would be long enough. We
watched it anxiously as it drew near the end, and then up, up, up it
went, far beyond our reach. We went back and shouted to Sam. What he
said in return, we could not make out. Here was a bitter disappointment
indeed. Our labour had been fruitless; our hope of escape well-nigh
vanished. Presently we saw the end of the rope descending till it came
easily within our reach. Short, directly afterwards, appeared at the
edge of the cliff.

"What will you do? Shall I haul you up, or will you climb up?" he
asked.

We were unanimously of opinion, that it would be safer to climb up, as
we might help ourselves a little by placing our feet on the inequalities
in the side of the cliff, and there would be less chance of the rope
chafing and breaking. We drew lots who should go up first. The lot
fell on Obed.

"Stand from under if I come down," he said, laughing, and seizing the
rope.

Up he began to mount. He was very active and muscular in proportion to
his weight. Still it was no light undertaking to have to ascend such a
height. For his sake, as well as our own, we watched him with intense
anxiety. Up, up he went. Now he swung off from