If you pretend to help and fail me, that bird carries to Esmo my request to hold you answerable for our lives." I invoked, in utter desperation, the awe with which, as his hints and my experience implied, Esmo was regarded by his neighbours; and slender as seemed this support, it did not fail me.

The Regent's countenance fell, and I saw that I might depend at least on his passive compliance.

Clasping his arm with my left hand, I said, "Pull back with all your might.

If I go over, you _shall_ go over too." Then pulling him down with me, and stretching myself over the precipice so far that but for this additional support I must have fallen, I reached Eveena, whose closed eyes and relaxing limbs indicated that another moment's delay might be fatal.
"Give me your hand," I cried in despair, seeing how tightly she still grasped the tough fibrous shoots growing in the crevices of the rock, whereof she had taken hold.

"Give me your hand, and let go!" To give me her hand was beyond the power of her will; to let go without giving me hold would have been fatal.