It hung safely under my
knitted shirt. I trusted in the security it gave me, and my courage
was renewed. The way out of my predicament was so hopeless, my
danger so great, that I solemnly resolved, should I ever reach home
again, to attribute my escape from this peril to the intervention
of the viking's talisman.
Long and wearily I waited, contemplating the difficulties of my
situation, and in the end I almost determined to hazard the further
descent without the help of the rope, trusting merely to the skill
of my hands and feet.
My first endeavour was to get back along the shelf of rock until
the rope should hang perpendicularly. Accordingly I restored the
young seagulls to their nest, turned myself round with my face to
the cliff, and, with much difficulty, retraced my way for some
distance. I was in a half-creeping position, holding by the right
hand to niches of the cliff, when, a sharp corner of stone digging
into my knee, I stumbled, and would surely have fallen far down
upon the rocks of the beach, had I not still held firmly to the
rope.
The sudden jerking, however, did one good thing; it loosened the
knot from the place where it had been held in the rock above, and
the rope itself came down by its own weight until it hung from my
waist where I had tied it.
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