d with her weight.

Her feet did not then touch the shelf below, however, and she really
overhung the abyss. It was a perilous situation and she was glad that
Mrs. Case could not see from above what she was doing.

To make matters worse, it was doubtful if she could climb back upon the
limb. Muscular as she was, _that_ was a feat that took real practice to
accomplish. She swung there, like a pendulum, neither able to get up,
nor daring to drop.

Suddenly something snapped above her. She cast up a fearful glance and
saw that the limb was giving with her weight. Dragged down so heavily,
the bark and fibres of the wood were parting. There was already a white
gash across the tree-trunk where the limb was attached to the tree.

She was falling. The splitting wood warned her that the entire branch
was separating from the trunk!

With a crash she fell. Fortunately the splitting flung her toward the
face of the cliff. She landed upon her feet, and held her position,
letting go of the branch, which whirled down the cliff side to the sea.

Laura, trembling a good deal, gazed down upon the shelf where Billy Long
was. He had not been disturbed, but lay as when she first saw him from
the top of the cliff.

"But we'll never be able to get up _this_ place," murmured Laura,
looking up at the sheer wall down which she had come so perilously.

But from this point where she stood to the spot where Billy lay was only
a rough scramble. She was beside the youth in a very few moments.

Billy lay senseless, the stain of berries on his lips, and one foot
drawn under him. When Laura shook him, he moaned. Then she saw that the
shoe had been removed from the hurt foot and the stocking, as well.
Billy's ankle was painfully bruised and wrenched; it was colored blue,
green and yellow, in streaks, and had evidently been bruised for some
time.

"Billy! Billy!" cried Laura, shaking him by the shoulder.

"I--I fell. Oh! Water!" moaned Billy, without opening his eyes.

He was very weak, and completely helpless; nor did he regain
consciousness. Laura had to await Josephine's return before she could do
anything to aid him.

Then Jess produced nothing but a clothesline; there had been no men at
the farm, and she had taken the only rope they had, and run all the way
back. But it was a strong line, and there was more than a hundred feet
of it.

"You can never raise either of us to the top of the cliff, Mrs. Case,"
shouted Laura from below. "I