Delay would do no good, so with a prayer I flung my right hand back, while my left hand clutched the spike.
I found the wall--it was only a foot or two beyond my reach.

With a heave I had my foot on the spike, and turning, had both hands on the opposite wall.

There I stood, straddling like a Colossus over a waste of white waters, with the cave floor far below me in the gloom, and my discarded axe lying close to a splash of Laputa's blood.
The spectacle made me giddy, and I had to move on or fall.

The wall was not quite perpendicular, but as far as I could see a slope of about sixty degrees.

It was ribbed and terraced pretty fully, but I could see no ledge within reach which offered standing room.