he said, 'and count up numbers loud to me,
that I may know thou art not turning faint.' So I gave out, 'One, two,
three,' and while I went on counting, heard him repeating to himself,
though his words seemed thin and far off: 'We must have taken ten minutes
to get here, and in five more they will be on the under-cliff; and if we
ever reach the top, who knows but they have left a guard! No, no, they
will not leave a guard, for not a man knows of the Zigzag; and, if they
knew, they would not guess that we should try it. We have but fifty yards
to go to win, and now this cursed giddy fit has come upon the child, and
he will fall and drag me with him; or they will see us from below, and
pick us off like sitting guillemots against the cliff-face.'

So he talked to himself, and all the while I would have given a world to
pluck up heart and creep on farther; yet could not, for the deadly
sweating fear that had hold of me. Thus I lay with my face to the cliff,
and Elzevir pushing firmly in my back; and the thing that frightened me
most was that there was nothing at all for the hand to take hold of, for
had there been a piece of string, or even a thread of cotton, stretched
along to give a semblance of support, I think I could have done it; but
there was only the cliff-wall, sheer and white, against that narrowest
way, with never cranny to put a finger into. The wind was blowing in
fresh puffs, and though I did not open my eyes, I knew that it was moving
the little tufts of bent grass, and the chiding cries of the gulls
seemed to invite me to be done with fear and pain and broken leg, and
fling myself off on to the rocks below.

Then Elzevir spoke. 'John' he said, 'there is no time to play the woman;
another minute of this and we are lost. Pluck up thy courage, keep thy
eyes to the cliff, and forward.'

Yet I could not, but answered: 'I cannot, I cannot; if I open my eyes, or
move hand or foot, I shall fall on the rocks below.'

He waited a second, and then said: 'Nay, move thou must, and 'tis better
to risk falling now, than fall for certain with another bullet in thee
later on.' And with that he shifted his hand from my back and fixed it
in my coat-collar, moving backwards himself, and setting to drag me
after him.

Now, I was so besotted with fright that I would not budge an inch,
fearing to fall over if I opened my eyes. And Elzevir, for all he was so
strong, could not pull a helpless lump backwards up that path. So he g