iked it better that he didn't answer right away, but went to the edge
of the gully and peered down the rocky chasm. Doubtless, if we were
knocked down, all seven of the others could haul us up again; but not
before we'd been badly smashed on the rocks. And once again I caught
that elusive shadow of movement in the brushwood; if the trailmen chose
a moment when we were half-in, half-out of the rapids, we'd be
ridiculously vulnerable to attack.

"We ought to be able to get a fixed rope easier than that," Hjalmar
said, and took one of the spares from his rucksack. He coiled it, making
a running loop on one end, and standing precariously on the lip of the
rapids, sent it spinning toward the outcrop of rock we had chosen as a
fixed point. "If I can get it over...."

The rope fell short, and Hjalmar reeled it in and cast the loop again.
He made three more unsuccessful tries before finally, with held breath,
we watched the noose settle over the rocky snub. Gently, pulling the
line taut, we watched it stretch above the rapids. The knot tightened,
fastened. Hjalmar grinned and let out his breath.

"There," he said, and jerked hard on the rope, testing it with a long
hard pull. The rocky outcrop broke, with a sharp crack, split, and
toppled entirely into the rapids, the sudden jerk almost pulling Hjalmar
off his feet. The boulder rolled, with a great bouncing splash, faster
and faster down the mountain, taking the rope with it.

We just stood and stared for a minute. Hjalmar swore horribly, in the
unprintable filth of the mountain tongue, and his brothers joined in.
"How the devil was I to know the _rock_ would split off?"

"Better for it to split now than when we were depending on it," Kyla
said stolidly. "I have a better idea." She was untying herself from the
rope as she spoke, and knotting one of the spares through her belt. She
handed the other end of the rope to Lerrys. "Hold on to this," she said,
and slipped out of her blankety windbreak, standing shivering in a thin
sweater. She unstrapped her boots and tossed them to me. "Now boost me
on your shoulders, Hjalmar."

Too late, I guessed her intention and shouted, "No, don't try--!" But
she had already clambered to an unsteady perch on the big Darkovan's
shoulders and made a flying grab for the lowest loop of the trailmen's
bridge. She hung there, swaying slightly and sickeningly, as the loose
lianas gave to her weight.

"Hjalmar--Lerrys--haul her down!"

"I'm ligh