Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 76: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BAG upon tie backs j in such a precarious eerie fell with the touch of grisly terror. Below them the howling gray wolves of the deep. Above a black, insuperable cliff. Any man might well write off his life in such predicament. Right there and then the two faint hearted followers would have abandoned the struggle. “No one could live below, no one could climb above. We might as well ’a’ gone down with the ship,” wailed Little Roary. But the next instant the redoubtable Red - Alec had crawled across another ledge, and sharp incline. leaning over, gave his mates a hand. From there a sheep trail ran up with In single file, crawling on hands and knees, they worked along the precipitate ascent until another sheer bluff rose before. “ Might as well have been drowned al ready,” croaked the complainer. “ We can’t go down-and we can’t go up. Not even God could save us on sic a dreesome rock.” For the first. time the skipper asserted his command. “ Shut up wi’ yer Saban Little Roary. Ye go to mass on Sabbaths, don’t ye? ‘“< All right, You thank the God ye wor- ship in the mass that He has brought yer feet up from that hell that’s baying beneath. Pray to Him to help ye. Then if ye’ve got any sand in yer gizzard; help yourselt. ¥ “JT did na think that the likes 0’ ye would be taking Father Donald’s job,” was the piper’s answer. But no more complaining words escaped him. A perpendicular wall towered above them to dizzy heights. Surely they could go no farther. But, no, already Red Alec had be- sun to climb by the help of every niche and crevice. It seemed only a place for wheel- ing sea birds. But Red Alec and Little Roary alike were Highlanders in the truest sense of thé word. From boyhood both had been scaling cliffs and mountains. Now, like spiders on a web, each hung to the sheer face of the cliff with the sea a hundred feet beneath. The third survivor, the mate, had come nigh the end of his scaling capacity. He was only a sailor. A sailor will go aloft anywhere, so long as he has a rope or yard of a house. ARGOSY- ALLSTORY WEEKLY. to grip to. Take away that pee “tnd he is lost. The unfortunate mate possessed none of — the Highlanders’ skill at mountaineering. But he was game to the end. Like some old viking he regarded his fate impassively. When the others had drawn themselves far above, he bit off a quid of tobacco, and manfully committed himself to the sheer ascent. After striving upward for twenty feet the mate made his fatal error. It is a principle of scaling always to keep two hands and one foot, or one foot and two hands, clinging to the surface. By this means the climber always maintains three points of suspen- sion. Red Alec and Little Roary knew this -by instinct. Ignoring it, the mate attempted to haul himself upward, sailor fashion. He had gripped an apparently solid pro- jection, which began to give and come away; then with a crack it broke off com- pletely and the clinging mate went plunging outward, while his death cry horrified his companions on the dizzy wall above. The realization of the tragedy just below brought a sickish dread to the remaining twain. With his toes digging into a fissure of broken rock, Red Alec paused, his blood pounding against his ear drums. A sudden tremor smote his limbs with palsy. Now was the time for prayer. His blue lips moved, but no words came. Trembling, the fingers of his free hand closed upon the Clan Ranald Cross.— — “Perhaps she ‘will be Series beritg the old rocks, and saying the good words for me.” That thought prota reassurance, and he started again. Gasping and panting, Little Roary came Struggling at his heels. _No words were passed. Every last breath was husbanded for the struggle. It seemed like walking sheer up the side At first glance there appeared no slightest aid to progress. But with un- erring touch Red Alec felt out each scar, and fissure, cleft and crevasse, testing cau- tiously and climbing always with the steady sureness of a mountain goat. Here an overhanging cliff opposed him. With the speed of a snail, he worked his ‘CO COMME KOOKXS