By heavens! it might be done! Surely it might be done! Inch by inch he traced the obscure passage, seeking to impress each faint detail upon his memory--that narrow ledge within easy reach of an upstretched arm, the sharp outcropping of rock-edges here and there, the deep gash as though some giant axe had cleaved the stone, those sturdy cedars growing straight out over the chasm like the bowsprits of ships, while all along the way, irregular and ragged, varied rifts not entirely unlike the steps of a crazy staircase.
The very conception of such an exploit caused his flesh to creep.

But he was not of that class of men who fall back dazed before the face of danger.

Again and again, led by an impulse he was unable to resist, he studied that precipitous rock, every nerve tingling to the newborn hope.

God helping them, even so desperate a deed might be accomplished, although it would test the foot and nerve of a Swiss mountaineer.

He glanced again uneasily toward his companion, and saw the same motionless figure, the same sober face turned deliberately away.