y the straps and let them go, and when the last
splashed into a boggy patch on the other side Miss Jardine laughed.

"I'm selfishly glad that one is yours. If Helen's had fallen a foot
short, it would have gone over the fall, but I expect she had a reason
for taking the risk. Where our clothes have gone we must follow."

Helen seized a tuft of heather, and sliding down, reached a narrow shelf
four or five feet below. Then a small mountain-ash gave her a fresh hold
and she dropped to the top of a projecting stone. Below this there was
another shelf and some boggy grass, after which a bank of earth dropped
nearly straight to the stream.

"How we shall get down the last pitch isn't very obvious," Miss Jardine
remarked. "I suppose we will see when we arrive. It isn't my resolution
that gives way, but my foot. You might go first."

Festing dropped on to the first shelf, and she came down into his arms.
The shock nearly flung him off, but he steadied her with an effort and
seized the stem of the small tree.

"Looks like a tight-wire trick," he said, glancing at the stone.
"However, if we miss it, there's another ledge below."

He reached the stone, and balancing on it with one foot, kicked a hole
in the spongy turf. Finding this would support him he held out his hand.

"Now. As lightly as you can!"

The girl came down, struck the stone with her foot, and slipped, but
Festing had time to clutch her first. He could not hold her back, but he
could steady her, and for a moment felt his muscles crack and the peat
tear out from the hole in the bank. Then his hands slipped and he fell,
gasping and red in face, upon the shelf beside the girl.

"Thank you; you did that rather well," she said. "It looks as if I were
heavier than you thought."

While he had been occupied Festing imagined he had heard a splash, and
now looking down saw Helen standing on a boulder in the stream. She gave
him an approving nod before she sprang to the next stone, and he felt
a thrill of pleasure. She knew his task was difficult and was satisfied
with him.

When they came to the scar where the floods had torn away the bank he
hesitated. It was some distance to the water, and there was no hold upon
the wall of soil, which was studded with small round stones.

"Helen slid," his companion remarked. "I imagine she chose her time; the
sitting glissade isn't elegant. But if you'll go first and wait--"

Festing leaned back with his shoulders against t