She was delighted to find that it made the ascent through a wide cleft and not along the outside.

She let herself down cautiously as the footway was crumbling and rotten and slippery with grass.

At the lower end of the cleft she peered out.

Trees and bushes--plenty of them, a thick shield between her and the valleys.

She moved slowly downward; a misstep might send her through the boughs to the hillside forty feet below.