so saying, he crept cautiously along and peered over into the abyss,
while I remained wondering by what possible means we could overcome this
apparently insuperable obstruction. As soon as my companion had completed
his survey, I eagerly inquired the result.

"The result of my observations you wish to know, do you?" began Toby,
deliberately, with one of his odd looks: "well, my lad, the result of my
observation is very quickly imparted. It is at present uncertain which of
our two necks will have the honour to be broken first; but about a hundred
to one would be a fair bet in favour of the man who takes the first jump."

"Then it is an impossible thing, is it?" inquired I, gloomily.

"No, shipmate; on the contrary, it is the easiest thing in life: the only
awkward point is the sort of usage which our unhappy limbs may receive
when we arrive at the bottom, and what sort of travelling trim we shall be
in afterwards. But follow me now, and I will show you the only chance we
have."

With this he conducted me to the verge of the cataract, and pointed along
the side of the ravine to a number of curious-looking roots, some three or
four inches in thickness, and several feet long, which, after twisting
among the fissures of the rock, shot perpendicularly from it, and ran
tapering to a point in the air, hanging over the gulf like so many dark
icicles. They covered nearly the entire surface of one side of the gorge,
the lowest of them reaching even to the water. Many were moss-grown and
decayed, with their extremities snapped short off, and those in the
immediate vicinity of the fall were slippery with moisture.

Toby's scheme, and it was a desperate one, was to entrust ourselves to
these treacherous-looking roots, and by slipping down from one to another
to gain the bottom.

"Are you ready to venture it?" asked Toby, looking at me earnestly, but
without saying a word as to the practicability of the plan.

"I am," was my reply; for I saw it was our only resource if we wished to
advance, and as for retreating, all thoughts of that sort had been long
abandoned.

After I had signified my assent, Toby, without uttering a single word,
crawled along the dripping ledge until he gained a point from whence he
could just reach one of the largest of the pendant roots; he shook it--it
quivered in his grasp, and when he let it go, it twanged in the air like a
strong wire sharply struck. Satisfied by his scrutiny, my light-limbed
compan