I'll tie one end to you
and we'll go along here until we find a place from which I can descend,
perhaps."

They drew back from their perilous position, and after making fast the
rope about Jean's waist, proceeded, stopping at intervals to lie flat
and look down over the rim of space.

They were feeling their way along the highest part of the Island, when
suddenly at their feet the tundra opened in a deep cleft not over five
feet wide. It began six yards or more back from the edge and led down
between crumbling, rocky walls at a fearful incline, to a ledge thirty
feet below.

Jean drew back with a cry at the sense of peril that came over her, but
Harlan looked eagerly down.

"By Jove, there are a _lot_ of eggs on that ledge," he announced
enthusiastically, "and we can get them!" He hesitated a moment,
considering. His eyes sought hers. "You're not strong enough to lower
me down to the ledge, Jean, but--would--would you be frightened if I
should let you down to them?"

For one awful moment the sea and sky and birds swirled together as the
girl stood, steeped in fear. Then the raucous cries of the gulls
penetrated her consciousness like shrieking voices calling: "Coward!
Quitter!"

Harlan was saying convincingly: "I wouldn't let you fall, Jean. My
arms are strong as a blacksmith's--" he flexed the muscles beneath his
thin shirt--"and see, there's a depression here at the head of the
chasm. I can stand in it and brace myself!"

Ten minutes later Jean, with her heart beating fearfully, stood facing
Harlan, as she prepared to back down the steep rocky slide.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE SECRET OF THE CLIFFS

As she felt herself going down step by step, Jean kept her eyes
resolutely shut. She steadied herself with outstretched arms and hands
just touching each wall of the cleft. The rope tightened about her, as
inch by inch Gregg let it out from above. Gradually as all went well,
curiosity overcame her fear and she opened her eyes. At that instant
there came a whirr and a flapping of wings that set her heart thumping
again, and out from the overhanging tundra on top of the cliff an
astonished sea-parrot flew, so close that the tip of his wing stung her
cheek. She could hear other birds below and about her beating their
wings and hurling themselves in alarm from their resting places. Far
beneath the billows detoned against the crags. With hands and feet now
she clung to the rough juttings of rock as she