y and render help.

"Where is she?" I said excitedly. "And how did she get where she is?"

"She wanted a plant," cried Wilfred. "I told her it was not to be
obtained, or I would get it; but she would not listen to me, and said
she would fetch it herself. She went down a little way all right, but
when she reached out her hand for the plant she slipped and fell."

"Fell! Fell where?" I asked, excitedly.

"To a ledge a few feet below."

"Did you see her?"

"Yes."

"And did you not try to reach her?"

"Why, how could I do anything? I could only go for help."

It is true Wilfred was younger than I, but I thought this conduct
cowardly. He seemed to fear for himself, and dared not risk his own
limbs. Katherine, on the other hand, though but a girl of sixteen, was
trying to rescue her friend.

I quickly scrambled down the declivity, and was not long in reaching
the point from which Ruth fell. Katherine was here also, but she could
go no farther, for the ledge beneath, although only about eight or nine
feet down, was narrow, and to fall from there meant certain death. The
mystery was how Ruth had fallen on to this ledge, and for a time I was
afraid she had been precipitated on the rugged rocks beneath. I heard
a moan, however, and saw a bit of her white dress, so my mind was
comparatively at ease.

I sent Katherine back, and told her to run for a rope, as it might be
necessary, and then prepared to reach the narrow rock on which Ruth lay.

"Keep a good heart, Ruth," I said; "I am coming to help you."

There was no reply, but I still struggled to get to her. Time after
time I essayed to reach her, and time after time I failed. I climbed
around and around, and from different points tried to get a footing on
the rock where she lay, but in vain. It was isolated, and was at least
nine feet from any point above it, and nearly as many from any standing
place on the same level.

There was only one way by which she could be reached, and that was by
gaining a rock nearly on the same level, and then leaping over the
chasm that lay between. This I determined to do, for how could I do
less? Ruth was lying like one dead, and if I did not help her who
could? I got on the point after some difficulty, and then found that I
was in nearly as much danger as she. I had jumped down to this jutting
rock, but I could not jump up again; the distance was too great. Could
I get on the rock where she lay there seemed a po