Part 6 (1/2)
”Try to cli hiet up here where I can reach you I'll pull you over”
Bobby tried the experiment, but the line was oily, and in spite of his best efforts he could cliain
”I can't do it,” he shouted up to Jireasy I can't get a good hold”
”I don't knohat to do!” said the distressed Jimmy ”I don't knohat to do!”
”If you can't pull me up, let me down,” directed Bobby
[Illustration: ”Hurry, Ji all nuood,” said Jio into the water and drown, for there's no place for you to stand”
”Well,” Bobby insisted, ”let h the line was going to break, and I' around this way”
”Holler when you wantback
But Jimmy found that after all he could let Bobby down only a very little hen he caain
”That's as far as it will go!” he called, lying down on his face again to look over the cliff at Bobby, as now about twenty feet above the water
”Then go and get the boat and fetch it down,” shouted Bobby ”Hurry, Ji all numb”
That was a solution of the difficulty that had not occurred to Ji the cliff top and down to the skiff, which was lying a half ht toward Bobby, until presently he drew up directly beneath the swinging lad
”Can you unfasten the line and drop into the boat, Bobby?” he asked, gazing up
”No,” decided Bobby, glancing at the skiff, which rose and fell on the swell, and which Ji waves on the cliff base ”I ht hit the boat but I'd break my neck, and maybe tip you over Stand her off a little, and I'll show you”
He felt in his pocket for his jackknife, drew it out and opened it Then with his left hand he succeeded, after several atte himself sufficiently to relieve the strain of his body, and with the jackknife in his right hand cut the line where it circled his body below the ar now by his left hand he deliberately and coolly closed the knife by pushi+ng the back of the blade against his leg, and restored it to his pocket This done he grasped the line with his right hand just above the bowline knot, where he had a fir in toward the cliff and out over the waves, and then on an outward swing, let go Down he went, well away from the rocks, feet first into the deep water, and, a rasped it astern, and cli from his icy bath
”Oh, Bobby, you're a wonder!” exclaietting off that line!”
”'Twasn't anything,” declared Bobby, deprecatingly, as he seated himself and picked up his oars ”Now let's pull back where we can put on a fire
I' cold”
”I was scared when I found I couldn't pull you up,” said Jiully ”Wasn't you?”
”No, I wasn't scared,” boasted Bobby ”I was just getting cold and nus I picked off the cliff I had sos I _ever_ saw--real s at the other, and all colored and s I ever saw, too”
”Did you find 'eether, or separate?”
”Found 'ees”