In a flash Kitty was off the and worming his way with hands and feet up the side of the Rock. Rodney, followed by the twins, hurried down the path to the ground below and then around to the other side. The first thing they saw was Kitty, fast about fifty feet up the ledge, and then their gaze found Tad. He was against the face of the Rock at what looked a fearsome distance from the earth. Both hands were clutched at the stone, and one foot was thrust into a . But the other foot hung in the air. Evidently he could find no support for it. The summit of the Rock seemed to be about ten or twelve feet above his head. The twins gazed upward with white and faces. Rodney put his hands to his mouth and called:  
[212]
 
“Can you hold on, Tad? Kitty is coming up!”
“Guess I’ve got to!” he called rather faintly. “Tell Kitty to hurry up!”
 
“He’s almost to you now,” shouted Rodney encouragingly. Then he moved around and hailed Kitty. “He’s all right so far, but he wants you to hurry, Kitty!” There was no response from Kitty, but the latter went on , his stockinged feet finding incredible footholds, and his hands seeming to glue themselves to the sheer surface of the . A elbow of rock still hid Tad from his sight as, reaching the shallow , he used knees as well as feet and found himself presently but a four yards from the summit. Then it was plain to be seen why Tad had come to grief. After emerging from the fissure, instead of keeping straight up he had worked to the left, taking advantage of a crack into which he could thrust his toes, evidently in the expectation of reaching a projecting point of rock some twelve feet beyond. Had he gained the he[213] could easily have pulled himself to the top and so gained the final summit. But, unfortunately, the crack had narrowed speedily and at last, having set his right foot on the last foothold, he could go no further. Nor, since his grip of the rock above him was none too secure, did he dare remove the weight of his body from that right foot to work back the way he had come. All this Kitty saw, as, panting with the rapidity of his , he paused at the top of the fissure. Tad was about level with him, but separated by some eight feet of rock.
 
“Keep your head,” he said shortly. “Be there in a minute.”
 
“Hello, Kitty!” Tad tried to speak lightly, but the strain of sticking there like a limpet to the almost straight up and down face of the ledge was beginning to tell, and his voice shook a little. “I’m in a fix,” he added. “Can’t get one way or t’other. See any place I can stick this left foot, old man?”
 
“No. Stay where you are a minute. Can you hold on?”
 
“Got to, haven’t I?” responded Tad grimly. “If you can do anything, Kitty, do it quick,[214] though. My fingers are , and this right foot of mine is about all in.”
 
“All right.” But Kitty, frowning and blinking, studying the situation with sharp, quick glances, was . To reach Tad from above seemed the most feasible plan, but in that case he would have to lower a rope or something to the other, and Kitty much doubted whether Tad would be able to grasp it, or, having grasped it, be able to hold on to it long enough to be pulled over the edge. Kitty knew from experience just how a fellow’s muscles felt after clinging to one position for many minutes. To reach Tad by following in his footsteps across the rock was easy, but what help could Kitty lend him when he was there? Kitty’s gaze fell finally to the ledge below Tad’s , and at that moment Tad again.
 
“You there, Kitty?” he asked. Evidently he was afraid to turn his head to look for fear the movement would dislodge one of the straining hands.
 
“Yes,” replied Kitty.
 
“Can’t you—do anything?” panted Tad anxiously.
 
[215]
 
“Yes. Hold on a minute more, Tad.”
 
“I will—if I can,” answered Tad in a weak voice.
 
“You’ve got to,” said Kitty. He was already scrambling back down the fissure. Rodney, watching below with a heart, . It looked as though Kitty had given up. But at the bottom of the fissure Kitty paused, gripped the rock with both hands, and sent one gray-stockinged foot searching to the left for a . At last he found it, tested it, paused an instant, and then wormed his body from the fissure and out against the blank wall of rock. The granite was loose and crumbly thereabouts and a little shower of down. Kitty studied the rock beyond. Here and there small inequalities gave faint promise of affording hold for feet and hands, but from where Rodney stood below the journey across that steep face of rock looked hopeless and foolhardy. Matty and May had ceased watching. At a little distance under the shadow of the Rock they stood white faced and .
 
“Kitty’s trying to get across to him lower down,” announced Rodney to them. “I don’t[216] see how he can do it though. It doesn’t look as if—” Rodney’s voice broke off short and a escaped him. Kitty, in taking his weight from one foot, had placed too much reliance on a tiny projection above him and a nodule of granite had broken off in his hand. For an instant he had swayed dangerously before, summoning his strength, he had thrown his body against the rock. Then during a heartbreaking moment he clung there while his disengaged hand travelled here and there above him, the clutching fingers seeking a new hold. They found it at last and Rodney’s fast beating heart leaped with relief. How Kitty ever made the journey acro............