nd and wave, washed by the rains and gnawed at its
base by ever-advancing and receding tides, had gradually been worn
away in the centre by the constant crumbling of the sandy soil, so as
to form a sort of ravine. It was a dangerous and gloomy place, and
I had received many a warning from Mr. Raymond never to take Helen
there.

"Helen!" I cried--"Helen! if you are here, answer me. I cannot see
you." A gull flew away from the cliff with a scream, and I could hear
no other sound. "Tell me, Helen, if you are here."

I heard a cry from above--almost inaudible it was so spiritless and
faint--yet, gaze as I might toward the top, I could see nothing. I
skirted the main rock and climbed as far as I easily could up the
ravine. Here my attention was arrested by a dot of scarlet against the
grim, bare face of the basalt. Yes, there she was, about forty feet
above me, hanging on to a shelving rock with her little Italian
greyhound in her arms. She was peering down, disclosing a pallid face.
I saw at once that she had hung there until her strength was almost
gone.

"Listen to me, Helen," said I, calmly and very gently, for I had a
ghastly dread that she would fall before my very eyes. "Don't look
down: just keep your eyes fixed on the rock, and hold on tight until I
reach you." She obeyed me. "Now," I went on authoritatively, "drop the
dog--drop him, I say!--Here, Beppo! here!"

She again obeyed me, and the dog scrambled down and fell--scratched
and bruised, no doubt, yet otherwise unhurt--at my feet. "Helen,
answer me one question," said I. "Can you wait until I go round up to
the top and get a rope?"

She gave a little scream of pitiful anguish: I saw her slight figure
sway, and some loose stones came rattling down. "I feel so sick, so
dizzy!" she cried.

"I will climb up, then. Hold on tight for a few minutes more. Keep
perfectly still, and don't look down: you know how well I can climb."

I was a capital climber, and could hold on like a cat where there was
a crevice to fasten my feet or my hands. Still, I was anything but
certain about these hollow, worn sides, which in places were as smooth
as glass. But it had to be done, and done quickly. If the child
fell she was dead or maimed to a certainty. She had crawled in some
unheard-of way down from the top, and must go back the way she had
come; and since I had no time to help her from above, I must go up
to her. A spar had been washed up among the debris upon which I had