CLIMBIN(i A ROCK IN FLAT ISLAND. 227 



thought of," I replied. " But what do you advise to be done?" 

 " One thing, sir, I think is clear, there 'sno use remaining on this 

 cursed point of rock, to be devoured piece-meal by sea gulls and 

 boobies; so, if we can't go down, we must just determine to go 

 np, and trust to Providence for finding some easier place of 

 descent." "Go up!" I replied; '^frorn the place where we 

 stand, to go up is utterly impossible." " Difficult, Sir," said 

 Wolfe, "but I do not think impossible. 1 observed this place 

 from beneath, and am satisfied that the black-looking canopy 

 over our heads is merely a ledge of the rock jutting out from the 

 main mass — ^just as the canopy of a pulpit. Sir, juts out from the 

 wall of a church. At least so it seemed to me from below ; and 

 I think if we could once get on the top of it, we might manage 

 to ascend still higher." " i/ we could get upon the top of 

 it," said I ; " but how is that to be done ? " ^* I can't tell you 

 how it is to be done, sir, said Wolfe; but I '11 at least show you 

 how it is to be attempted. Remain you, in the mean time, 

 where you are, sir; if I succeed I can easily pull you up after 

 me; if I fall, why, when all 's done, what is it but an end of 

 Dick Wolfe, who must die one day at any rate ? Farewell, sir, 

 sliouid we never meet again." "'Tis madness to attempt it," 

 I cried. "Stop! for God's sake consider what you do!" 

 " Never say die while there 's a shot in the locker, sir ; that 's my 

 maxim; so here goes;" and before I could interfere to prevent 

 him, he stretched his hands upwards, and, grasping a projecting 

 part of a rude rock canopy, was in an instant swinging in mid-air 

 by the arms. Without shifting the position of his hands, but 

 pulling himself upwards by sheer muscular force, his head and 

 shoulders were soon hid from my view, while the legs and low- 

 er part of his body hung dangling over the edge of the rock. It 

 was a moment of painful suspense to me ; as to whether he was 

 likely to succeed in his design, or be precipitated to the bottom, 

 I could not form the slightest conjecture, for not a sound of fear 

 or hope escaped the gallant fellow's lips. Slowly and gradually, 

 however, his quivering limbs were drawn upwards, till they en- 

 tirely disappeared, and the next moment my ears were saluted 

 from above by a loud and spirit-stirring hurrah ! That he had 

 succeeded in reaching the top of the ledge which hung frowning 

 over the place where I stood, I was thus certified ; but how I. 

 should be able to follow him in so difficult an ascent, still seemed 

 a mystery. Presently, however, a bare arm was suspended over 

 the edge of the rock ; the huge, brawny tendons of which seemed 



