an a foot wide, and that ever so little a lean of the
body would dash me on the rocks below. So I crept on, but spent much time
that was so precious in travelling those ten yards to take me round the
first elbow of the path; for my foot was heavy and gave me fierce pain to
drag, though I tried to mask it from Elzevir. And he, forgetting what I
suffered, cried out, 'Quicken thy pace, lad, if thou canst, the time is
short.' Now so frail is man's temper, that though he was doing more than
any ever did to save another's life, and was all I had to trust to in the
world; yet because he forgot my pain and bade me quicken, my choler rose,
and I nearly gave him back an angry word, but thought better of it and
kept it in.

Then he told me to stop, for that the way grew wider and he would pick me
up again. But here was another difficulty, for the path was still so
narrow and the cliff-wall so close that he could not take me up in his
arms. So I lay flat on my face, and he stepped over me, setting his foot
between my shoulders to do it; and then, while he knelt down upon the
path, I climbed up from behind upon him, putting my arms round his neck;
and so he bore me 'pickaback'. I shut my eyes firm again, and thus we
moved along another spell, mounting still and feeling the wind still
freshening.

At length he said that we were come to the last turn of the path, and he
must set me down once more. So down upon his knees and hands he went, and
I slid off behind, on to the ledge. Both were on all-fours now; Elzevir
first and I following. But as I crept along, I relaxed care for a moment,
and my eyes wandered from the cliff-side and looked down. And far below I
saw the blue sea twinkling like a dazzling mirror, and the gulls wheeling
about the sheer chalk wall, and then I thought of that bloated carcass of
a sheep that had fallen from this very spot perhaps, and in an instant
felt a sickening qualm and swimming of the brain, and knew that I was
giddy and must fall.

Then I called out to Elzevir, and he, guessing what had come over me,
cries to turn upon my side, and press my belly to the cliff. And how he
did it in such a narrow strait I know not; but he turned round, and lying
down himself, thrust his hand firmly in my back, pressing me closer to
the cliff. Yet it was none too soon, for if he had not held me tight, I
should have flung myself down in sheer despair to get quit of that
dreadful sickness.

'Keep thine eyes shut, John,'