AND DUDGEON SMILED 179 



bare rock. When I looked at it in cold blood, I 

 wondered how I ever descended it without wings. 

 I knew in my heart that I could never get back, 

 but the Banker started. It was a sheer cliff, with 

 here and there a crack, a toe-hold, or finger-hold 

 as far apart as one could reach. I saw him 

 toilsomely reach from one to the other, spread- 

 eagled against the rock face. At one place, a 

 rock, that he grasped with his right hand, as he 

 threw his weight on it, gave way, glanced over his 

 arm, and just missed his head. He swung far out- 

 ward and I shuddered, I thought he was gone, 

 and his body a mangled mass on the rocks a 

 hundred feet below. By a miracle his left hand 

 held, and he still pursued his way, inch by inch. 



I said to Dudgeon, '^ I never can make that, 

 but you must stay below and catch me if I slip." 

 And Dudgeon smiled. 



Like most men, I am a coward when there is 

 no one around. Here were no admiring crowds 

 to see me risk my life. No one but Dudgeon. 

 How I scaled that awful cliff, I shall never know, 

 I think I was years doing it. I hung there, some- 



