If I can once reach that tree, I thought, the battle is won.

The crack was only a few inches wide, large enough to let in an arm and a foot, and it ran slantwise up a perpendicular rock.

I do not think I realized how bad it was till I had gone too far to return.

Then my foot jammed, and I paused for breath with my legs and arms cramping rapidly.

I remember that I looked to the west, and saw through the sweat which kept dropping into my eyes that about half a mile off a piece of cliff which looked unbroken from the foot had a fold in it to the right.