Once more I tried the moral support of the rope, and as well as I could dropped a noose on the spike which might hold me if I fell.

Then I boldly embarked on a hand traverse, pulling myself along a little ledge till I was right in the angle of the fall.

Here, happily, the water was shallower and less violent, and with my legs up to the knees in foam I managed to scramble into a kind of corner.

Now at last I was on the wall of the gully, and above the cave.

I had achieved by amazing luck one of the most difficult of all mountaineering operations.