d, "Pull
back with all your might. If I go over, you _shall_ go over too." Then
pulling him down with me, and stretching myself over the precipice so
far that but for this additional support I must have fallen, I reached
Eveena, whose closed eyes and relaxing limbs indicated that another
moment's delay might be fatal.

"Give me your hand," I cried in despair, seeing how tightly she still
grasped the tough fibrous shoots growing in the crevices of the rock,
whereof she had taken hold. "Give me your hand, and let go!"

To give me her hand was beyond the power of her will; to let go
without giving me hold would have been fatal. Beaching over to the
uttermost, I contrived to lay a firm grasp upon her wrist. But this
would not do. I could hardly drag her up by one arm, especially if she
would not relax her grasp. I must release the Regent and depend upon
his obedience, or forfeit the chance of saving her, as in a few more
moments she would certainly swoon and fall.

"Throw yourself upon me, and sit firm, if you value your life," I
cried, and I relaxed my hold on his arm, stretching both hands to
grasp Eveena. I felt the man's weight on my body, and with both arms
extended to the uttermost hanging over the edge, I caught firm bold of
the girl's shoulders. Even now, with any girl of her age on earth, and
for aught I know with many Martial damsels, the case would have been
hopeless. My whole strength was required to raise her; I had none to
spare to force her loose from her hold. Fortunately my rough and tight
clasp seemed to rouse her. Her eyes half opened, and semi-consciousness
appeared to have returned.

"Let go!" I cried in that sharp tone of imperious anger which--with
some tempers at least--is the natural expression of the outward
impulse produced by supreme and agonizing terror. Obedience is the
hereditary lesson taught to her sex by the effects of equality in
Mars. Eveena had been personally trained in a principle long discarded
by Terrestrial women; and not half aware what she did, but yielding
instinctively to the habit of compliance with imperative command
spoken in a masculine voice, she opened her hands just as I had lost
all hope. With one desperate effort I swung her fairly on to the
platform, and, seeing her safe there, fell back myself scarcely more
sensible than she was.

The whole of this terrible scene, which it has taken so long to
relate, did not occupy more than a minute in action. I know not
whet