I said as much, beseeching him to make his
own way up the Zigzag and leave me where I was, for that they might have
mercy on a boy.

'Tush!' he cried; 'it is thy heart that fails thee, and 'tis too late now
to change counsel. We have fifteen minutes yet to win or lose with, and
if we gain the cliff-top in that time we shall have an hour's start, or
more, for they will take all that to search the under-cliff. And Maskew,
too, will keep them in check a little, while they try to bring the life
back to so good a man. But if we fall, why, we shall fall together, and
outwit their cunning. So shut thy eyes, and keep them tight until I bid
thee open them.' With that he caught me up again, and I shut my eyes
firm, rebuking myself for my faint-heartedness, and not telling him how
much my foot hurt me. In a minute I knew from Elzevir's steps that he
had left the turf and was upon the chalk. Now I do not believe that there
were half a dozen men beside in England who would have ventured up that
path, even free and untrammelled, and not a man in all the world to do it
with a full-grown lad in his arms. Yet Elzevir made no bones of it, nor
spoke a single word; only he went very slow, and I felt him scuffle with
his foot as he set it forward, to make sure he was putting it down firm.

I said nothing, not wishing to distract him from his terrible task, and
held my breath, when I could, so that I might lie quieter in his arms.
Thus he went on for a time that seemed without end, and yet was really
but a minute or two; and by degrees I felt the wind, that we could scarce
perceive at all on the under-cliff, blow fresher and cold on the
cliff-side. And then the path grew steeper and steeper, and Elzevir went
slower and slower, till at last he spoke:

'John, I am going to stop; but open not thy eyes till I have set thee
down and bid thee.'

I did as bidden, and he lowered me gently, setting me on all-fours upon
the path; and speaking again:

'The path is too narrow here for me to carry thee, and thou must creep
round this corner on thy hands and knees. But have a care to keep thy
outer hand near to the inner, and the balance of thy body to the cliff,
for there is no room to dance hornpipes here. And hold thy eyes fixed on
the chalk-wall, looking neither down nor seaward.'

'Twas well he told me what to do, and well I did it; for when I opened my
eyes, even without moving them from the cliff-side, I saw that the ledge
was little more th