which divided the stone into blocks. In an instant he had stretched out
his left hand, forced it in there, drawn himself along till he could get
the other hand in, and was safe so far; and to his great joy found, by a
little searching, that he could find foot-hold, for the horizontal crack
ran some four feet below the surface, and afforded him sufficient
standing room, if he could only find something to hold on by above.

For the moment he was safe, but his object was to get along the wall,
till he could find a place where he could climb the rocky side of the
river; and once clear of the water, he felt that it would go hard if he
could not find some way to the top, the more easily from the fact that
above the steep piece of wall down into the water the trees grew so
abundantly that a climber would for a certainty find plenty of help.

The men remained motionless in the water, watching in the full
expectation of seeing the lad swept down to them; but he held fast, and
once more reaching forward, he strained outward till he caught a tuft of
grass, crept on along the submerged ledge to that, and from there gained
a large patch of tough broom. Then came two or three easy movements
onward, bringing the fugitive abreast of the sink, which was larger than
it had appeared from below, and Ralph shuddered as he felt that any one
who approached the vortex would for a certainty be dragged down.

For a few moments he clung there, the nervous thoughts of what might be
if he slipped and were caught in the whirlpool being sufficient to half
paralyse him; then turning angry at his feeling of cowardice, he reached
boldly out again, found fresh hand-hold, and did the same again and
again, till he was a dozen yards beyond the sink-hole, and had to stop
and think. For the wall was smoother than ever; the stream ran
stronger; the distance between the two sides being less, it looked
deeper; and the next place where he could find hand-hold was apparently
too far to reach.

Still, it was his only chance, and taking fast hold with his right, and
somehow thinking the while of Mark's passage along the surface of the
High Cliff, he reached out farther and farther, pressing his breast
against the rock, edging his feet along, and then stopping at his
fullest stretch, to find the little root of ivy he aimed at grasping
still six or seven inches away.

The dead silence preserved by the men below was broken by the barking of
one of the dogs. The