Quiet, or I'll wring your necks."

As Mark spoke, his right hand was in the nest, feeling about so as to
get four legs together in his grasp, but this took some little time, and
a great deal of fluttering and squealing accompanied the act. But as he
worked, Mark thought hard, and of something else beside ravens. How was
he to get out of this unpleasant fix, being as he was quite at his
enemy's mercy? But all the same, with assumed nonchalance, he drew out
the fluttering ravens, loosened his hold of the shrub with his left
hand, and trusted to his powers of retaining his balance, in spite of
the birds' struggles, while in the coolest way possible he transferred
the legs from his right hand to his left, and proceeded to tie them
tightly.

"There you are," he said. "I think that's safe."

Then, to Ralph's astonishment, the lad began to hum over his song again
about the ravens as, completely ignoring those above, he took hold of
the bush again, and leaned forward to gaze down into the dizzy depths as
if in search of an easy path, but really to try and make out, in his
despair, what would be his chance of escape if he suddenly rose to his
feet and boldly jumped outward. Would he clear all the trees and come
down into the river? And if the last, would it be deep enough to save
him from injury at the bottom?

Where he had crossed was only ankle deep, but there was a broad, still
patch, close up under the cliff, for he had noticed it as he came; but
whether he could reach it in a bold leap, and whether it would be deep
enough to save him from harm, he could not tell; but he was afraid that
if he missed it he would be broken upon the pieces of rock which had
fallen from above.

That way of escape was too desperate, and the more repellent from the
fact that the beech-trees below prevented him from seeing what awaited
him.

He busied himself in pretending to examine the knot he had made about
the birds' legs, and then, raising his sword-belt, he passed one young
raven inside, leaving the other out, so that they hung from his back,
not in a very comfortable position for them, but where they would not be
hurt. All the time though the lad was scanning the rocky face, first to
right then to left, to seek for a way by which he could climb down,
escape upwards being impossible; and he had quickly come to the
conclusion that if unmolested he could manage, by taking his time, to
get down in safety.

He had just decided t