"Hold on to the grass stems the same as I did, and let yourself slide over at the corner--there! Now, feel with your foot for a projecting bit of stone just below where you are standing and about a yard to the right.

Have you got it ?" "Yes," replied Fritz.
"All right, then, let yourself down on it and take a fresh grip of the tussock-grass, for you will have to bear more to the left this time.
Hold on tight and take a long step down, now, and you'll be beside me; there you are, you see!" Eric then proceeded down to the next step, or leap, of the waterfall in the same way, lowering the kid first, and then descending and directing his brother's steps; so that, in a much shorter time than they had ascended, they arrived once more in the valley--although, from the fact of the tableland being more open and exposed and the cliffs obscuring the light, the lads found it quite dark when they reached their hut, the sun having sunk below the western ocean while they were climbing down the crags.
"Thank goodness, we're here at last!" exclaimed Fritz, when, having got within their hut, he sank upon the bed in the corner.

"I didn't tell you before, for fear of alarming you; but, as I came down the cliff, I sprained my ankle fearfully.

Once, I thought I should never reach the bottom alive, laddie.

Really, if we had but another step now to go, I'm certain I would not have been able to limp it." "Himmel!" ejaculated Eric, "I couldn't see that you walked lame on account of its being dark; and, you wouldn't tell me, of course, or lean on my arm so as to let me help you!" Eric spoke in quite an aggrieved tone, which struck his brother keenly, although he refrained from answering him; but, while expressing his sense of hurt feeling at Fritz not asking his aid, the lad was busily employed in lighting the lamp and examining the injured ankle, which, to his consternation, he found so badly dislocated that the bone protruded.
The foot, too, was already swollen to more than twice its size! "It looks awful," he said; "and, just think, if it had given way when we were descending the crag you might have tumbled down the precipice and made me brotherless! Why did you not tell me and ask my help ?" "Because," replied Fritz, with some reason, "my doing so might perhaps have frightened you, causing you to lose your nerve at a moment when the safety of both of us depended on your keeping cool and steady." "That might have been so," said Eric; "but, still, I would have been able to help you more if I had known! However, `everything that is, is for the best,' isn't that so, brother ?" With this consoling reflection, the sailor lad, under Fritz's directions, set about bandaging the wounded limb with a long handkerchief dipped in cold water and wrapped round it as tightly as possible.
This surgical operation accomplished, the two then went to bed, pretty well tired with the day's excursion.
They had had a long chase after the wild goats, in addition to first exploring the tableland above and the exertion of ascending and descending the cliff--which latter was quite an arduous enough enterprise in itself and sufficiently dangerous, as was amply proved by the fact of Fritz's accident, that might lay him up for some time.
However, the next day, the invalid thought roast kid ample payment for sprained ankle; and he was not sorry for the enforced rest he was obliged to take after the rough exercise he had undergone since landing on the island, having now an opportunity of reading and investigating the little library of books given by Celia Brown to Eric, which he had not yet had the chance of overhauling.
Indeed, Master Fritz had a nice easy time of it; for Eric not only waited on him, but saw to everything that had to be done until he was able to move about again.
"That old billy-goat was bound to do me an injury! I thought so when I first saw him that evening, standing out against the sunset sky over our heads," said the elder brother to Eric, when he was once more out of doors and felt again like his old self.