VERY NEAR TO DEATH.
Although they had started at sunrise the little party had not nearly
reached the pass by the hour that it was time for their mid-day halt.
Having to find a practicable route for the horses, and having to remove
so many objects that were obstacles in their way, had taken so much
longer a time than they had expected. The boys removed the saddles and
loads from the horses to ease them a little, and turned them loose to
find what food they could amongst the scanty growth on the rocks. There
was unfortunately no water for them, for the only little watercourse
near them was absolutely dry. The boys and Murri had each his own water
bottle with him, but Murri, with all the incurable thoughtlessness of
an Australian savage, had drunk all of his store in the early part of
the day. The boys were accustomed to this absolute want of foresight in
Murri, so they were not surprised, but it annoyed Alec every time he
displayed it.
He had a much hastier temper than George, and although, as a rule, it
was well under control in the big affairs of life, he sometimes lost it
over small matters--just as most of us do.
"Confound the fellow!" said he, in an annoyed voice. "He has drunk all
his water and wants some of ours. What an idiot the man is to be sure.
He must suffer for his own folly and go without any."
"Remember he is nothing but a child in mind," said George. "They always
are. He either hopes that water will turn up somewhere or other, or,
what is more likely, doesn't think at all. He just felt thirsty, and
having the water at his saddle drank it up without another thought."
"I suppose that is it. But he ought not to hope to find water in such
unlikely places."
"I don't know that he does. But I think you are as foolish as he is if
you expect to find wisdom of that sort in such unlikely places as
Murri's brain. You never will remember mother's one solitary piece of
philosophy, 'Learn to _expect_ disappointment.' And now that I have
given my elder brother a lecture, which is very charming of me, I'll
give Murri some of my water. Come along, old stoopid," he sang out
pleasantly to the black.
"You won't do anything of the sort, my young Solomon," said Alec, whose
face was bright again. "_I_ shall. I lost my temper like a jackass, and
I'll make up for it. You are quite right, most learned brother, so
preach away as much as you like."
"I don't like preaching at all, any more than I like listening to
sermons, and if you dare say that I preach to you, Arrick, or ever have
preached, I'll come and gag you with this piece of soft damper," said
George, taking up a stiff piece of the flour and water he was mixing.
Before they resumed their march, Murri pointed out to them the route
they would have to follow. He remembered every yard of the road; he was
wise enough in that way, although it was years since he had been there.
The only way that they could go was along a narrow sort of shelf that
formed a natural little path that led from the ravine they were then
in, along the wall-like face of cliff, to the top of the next great
ridge above them.
After a halt of a couple of hours Alec said that if they did not get on
at once he feared they would not reach the pass before sunset. It was
only with great difficulty that they managed to get the horses on to
the narrow shelf that was their only path out of the ravine. Murri,
leading his horse, went first in the line, then came George with
Vaulty, and last came Alec, driving Amber before him, and leading the
one pack-horse, to which the loss of the two horses had reduced them.
The ascent was very rough and steep, and quickly raised them to a great
height above the valley they had rested in. Fortunately, no green thing
grew on that rocky ledge to hide the inequalities of their path; it was
too stony and too exposed to the terrible heat of the tropical sun for
any vegetation to live upon it. Every now and then Murri had to roll
some great rock, that blocked the path, into the gulf beneath them,
which, striking the crags as it wildly plunged through air, would dash
itself in pieces upon the rocks below, the noise of its descent echoing
from side to side of the ravine in dull reverberations.
As they mounted higher and higher the path became narrower, and the
precipice upon their right hand side became so sheer, that looking over
the edge of the rock they stood upon they could see straight down into
the valley a thousand feet below them. It was a fortunate thing that
the boys' heads were perfectly steady; had they been nervous or giddy
they must have fallen from their awful height from simple fright at the
depth of air below them. Alec began to blame himself for not having
examined the path before he ventured upon leading the horses on to it,
for it had now become so narrow that the animals could not have turned
round had the path suddenly ended or had they come upon any insuperable
object across it. However, it was as well to go on boldly now that they
had entered upon it and there was no help for it. He said to himself
that he was every bit as thoughtless as their hare-brained guide.
They must have been climbing up this perilous track for nearly an hour,
for they had been very cautious and slow in their movements for fear of
an accident, when the horse that Murri was leading displaced a smallish
stone which, instead of falling over the edge of the precipice and
dashing itself a moment or so afterwards--with a noise made soft by the
distance--on the rocks so far beneath, rolled down the path with
momentarily increasing speed. George saw it coming, and, calling to
Alec to look out, sprang into the air to prevent it striking his feet.
The stone passed by him without striking him, but as he retouched the
ground the piece of rock on which his feet descended, loosened from the
ledge by the sudden spring he had made, became detached from its
position, and, quivering for a second, fell silently in a little cloud
of dust and crumbling fragments over the edge of the awful chasm. A
moment afterwards a dull crash rose from the valley, where it had
shattered itself upon the rocks. But Alec did not hear the noise of it,
for before the great stone had reached the pointed rocks his ears had
been rent and every drop of blood in his body curdled by the piercing,
agonising shriek that Geordie uttered as he felt himself falling from
the path.
For one half second after he had leaped George had felt the trembling
of the rock beneath him, and then, before he knew what was happening,
he felt himself falling with the stone. Then it was that that loud
despairing shriek burst from his agonised lips. He uttered no word nor
name; that wild, hopeless cry was but the expression of the deadly fear
and terror that he felt.
The horror of Alec's situation was doubled by the fact that from his
position on the path he could not see what had happened. The path was
narrow, and between him and his brother were two horses, Amber, which
he was driving before him, and Vaulty, which George had been leading.
At the sound of that shrill shriek an icy sweat burst out upon him, and
he felt fear creeping in among the roots of his hair and roughening his
skin. For one instant he stood still as death, frozen by terror to
inaction, for he knew that it was George who cried. Then with rapid
throbs his bursting heart began to beat, and through his pallid lips a
cry broke forth--
"_Geordie, Geordie! What is it?_"
No answer came to his loud call, and loosing the bridle of the horse he
was leading he flung himself down on the path. He could see nothing of
his brother, but he saw that the two horses before him were standing
perfectly still. Creeping on hands and knees, for there was not room
for him to pass between the horse and the wall of rock that rose on his
left hand side, he crawled between Amber's legs. Then, with a heart
that stood still for fear, he saw that Geordie had disappeared. Vaulty,
who was a few yards in front of him, was standing with all four legs
stretched out as though resisting some great strain, and his head was
pulled down to the very edge of the path. Not waiting to think what
these things might mean, Alec crept under the sweating belly of the
horse, which stood as still and stiff as though carved in stone.
Before he had passed between the fore legs of the sturdy roan he took
one fearsome glance over the edge of the precipice.
Horror! What did he see?
There, a few feet below him, swinging at the end of the strained bridle
reins of his horse, was Geordie, hanging and swaying horribly, with
nothing between him and the awful rocks below but two thousand feet of
air. As Alec looked over the edge of the precipice he saw the deathly
face of his brother beneath him with strained, wide open eyes with a
ghastly look of terror in them, gazing straight up at him. George's jaw
was firmly clenched, and between the white, set teeth, which the
retracted lips displayed, he hissed in a thrilling, awful whisper--
"Make haste! make haste! _the bridle is slipping!_"
With an indrawn shuddering breath of terror Alec pushed himself between
the legs of the horse, and leaning over the edge of the precipice he
grasped in his strong brown hand the two straps of the bridle that were
nearest to him. Just as he was about to gather into his grasp the two
other straps on the further side of the bit the leather on that side
gave way, and with a sickening jerk Geordie dropped two feet further
down, two feet nearer death.
Neither of the boys uttered a cry as this frightful accident happened.
The struggle with death was too fierce for them to make a sound.
Horribly the boy swayed about at the end of the two straining straps
that alone suspended him above the vast abyss; the knuckles of his
hands were white with the fearful energy of his grasp; his head hung
back, and his dark curly hair fell away from his forehead, for his hat
had slipped off, and even then was floating with great birdlike swoops
to the valley below. His face was white as death, and his wild eyes
stared up at Alec's face with an expression of agonised entreaty in
them.
Gradually Alec hauled in inch after inch of the bridle. From his
awkward position on the path, lying on his chest and leaning over the
edge, he was not able to exert all his strength, so that it was very
slowly that he was able to raise Geordie up. The sweat stood in great
beads on his brow, not merely from the labour, which was great, but
from his terrible anxiety lest these straps should break as the other
pair had done under a lesser strain. But the leather held firm, and he
blessed in his heart the man who had done that honest tanning.
Alec saw, with renewed terror, when Geordie's tightly clasped hands
were almost within reach of his own, that a look of faintness began to
steal over his face, and that the eyes, which had been so widely open
in his agony, were gradually closing. If but for one instant
insensibility overtook him he must loose his grasp of the reins and
fall. The thought of this was too awful for contemplation, and was
trebly terrible now that he was so nearly within his brother's reach.
"Hold on, Geordie. Hold on a minute longer, and I can reach you. Hold
on, hold on, _don't give way_!" shouted Alec, his voice almost rising
to a shriek as he saw the death-like look of faintness creeping faster
and faster over Geordie's face.
Alec redoubled his already incredible exertions, straining every nerve
till the tendons in his bare brown neck stood out like bars and the
great swelling muscles on his arms and back seemed to turn to iron in
their strength. Then, making one grand final effort, he held George's
weight up by one arm alone, and stretching out the other seized his
brother's wrist in a grasp of iron, just as poor Geordie's overtaxed
strength gave way and his head rolled heavily to one side in total
unconsciousness.
It was at this moment that Murri reached Alec's side; he had been some
way ahead of the two boys, so that, although he stopped the moment he
heard George's shriek, he had not been able to reach them before. It
was fortunate that he came up when he did, for with George's dead
weight hanging on to his outstretched arm Alec was quite unable to haul
his brother back to the path; but with the assistance of the black boy
he succeeded in raising the inanimate body of the senseless lad from
his awful position, and in laying him in safety again on the rocky
path.
It was only with difficulty that they revived the fainting boy; the
mental shock and the bodily strain he had undergone in falling and
holding himself up by his hands for so long were more than he could
recover from at once. But in an hour's time the plucky fellow was
sufficiently well to go on, though he shook as with a palsy.
"Don't speak of it; I can't bear to speak of it or think of it yet.
Wait till we are away from this awful place," he had said, as soon as
he could speak; so that no word was spoken until they had reached the
top of the pass and left that frightful pathway, and had descended some
little way down the gentle, wooded slopes of the other side, where, by
the side of a little marshy pool, they camped for the night.