O Elfride!why did you?said he.I am afraid you have only endangered yourself.
And as if to prove his statement,in making an endeavour by her assistance they both slipped lower,and then he was again stayed.
His foot was propped by a bracket of quartz rock,balanced on the verge of the precipice.Fixed by this,he steadied her,her head being about a foot below the beginning of the slope.Elfride had dropped the glass;it rolled to the edge and vanished over it into a nether sky.
Hold tightly to me,he said.
She flung her arms round his neck with such a firm grasp that whilst he remained it was impossible for her to fall.
Dont be flurried,Knight continued.So long as we stay above this block we are perfectly safe.Wait a moment whilst I consider what we had better do.
He turned his eyes to the dizzy depths beneath them,and surveyed the position of affairs.
Two glances told him a tale with ghastly distinctness.It was that,unless they performed their feat of getting up the slope with the precision of machines,they were over the edge and whirling in mid-air.
For this purpose it was necessary that he should recover the breath and strength which his previous efforts had cost him.So he still waited,and looked in the face of the enemy.
The crest of this terrible natural facade passed among the neighbouring inhabitants as being seven hundred feet above the water it overhung.It had been proved by actual measurement to be not a foot less than six hundred and fifty.