United States or Oman ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But, save for one row of bricks in front, the floor of it was emptiness. Antony took a torch from his pocket and flashed it down into the blackness. "Look," he whispered to the eager Bill. "The steps begin down there. Six feet down." He flashed his torch up again. There was a handhold of iron, a sort of large iron staple, in the bricks in front of them. "You swing off from there," said Bill.
Only a quick thrust of his spontoon into the cliff saved him from falling almost a hundred feet. He had just struck it with terrific force into the rock, where it gave him firm handhold, when he heard a voice cry, "Good God, Captain, what shall I do?"
It was a remarkably difficult traverse. In places they had to hoist the leader up to some slippery shelf he could not reach unassisted and to which he dragged his companions up in turn; in others deep pools barred their way, and in skirting them they were forced to cling to any indifferent handhold on the rock's fissured side.
For the first time she realised his peril. "Over rocks that are steepest," he quoted gaily, between grunts of hard breathing. He had handhold now. What's to the left?" I mistrust grass on these ledges. . . . Reach down your hand, dear Ruth, to steady me only. . . ." She flung herself prone on the flat rock beside the fire, and gave a hand to him.
The principle of safe climbing is to maintain always three points of suspension: that it to say, one should keep either both footholds and one handhold, or both handholds and one foothold. Failing that, one is taking long chances. With this firmly in mind, I spidered out across the wall, testing every projection and cranny before I trusted any weight to it.
What did it matter to us, beaten and unbeaten, as we rested for a moment and then again stretched out bleeding fingers for some little advantage, knowing well that when such a gale blew victory was only possible when by constant trials the chance came of each being given good or fair handhold at once. Then came a shriek of wind and a blown-out lull and a wrinkle lapsed into a fold.
The world, dizzily stewing in a caldron of monumental mistakes, would give scant attention to an off-side play such as this promised to be. Not a handhold anywhere to the puzzle. The old boy might have the key, but Dennison Cleigh could not go to him for the solution. His own father!
However " He floundered clumsily as he removed one of his foam-rubber space-boots, " my brains tell me that action is equal and opposite to reaction!" And he threw the boot with all possible velocity toward Morey! The reaction of the motion brought him slowly but surely to a handhold in the wall.
Except on the very edge of the abyss there was scarcely a handhold. Possibly in floods the waters may have swept the wall in a curve, smoothing down the inner part and leaving the outer to its natural roughness. There was one place where I had to hang on by a very narrow crack while I scraped with the axe a hollow for my right foot.
Clinging to the rocks, hanging on desperately, taking a score of desperate chances momentarily, she made her way on and down. She found scant handhold and, almost falling, dropped her club, heard it strike, strike again. Black as the night was, its gloom was less than that of the cavern to which Judith had grown accustomed; little by little she began to make out the broken surface of the cliffs.
Word Of The Day