slants and elbow-turns up to the top.  The shepherds call it the Zigzag, and even sheep lose their footing on it; and of men I never heard but one had climbed it, and that was lander Jordan, when the Excise was on his heels, half a century back.  But he that tries it stakes all on head and foot, and a wounded bird like thee may not dare that flight.  Yet, if thou art content to hang thy life upon a hair, I will carry thee some way; and where there is no room to carry, thou must down on hands and knees and trail thy foot.’

It was a desperate chance enough, but came as welcome as a patch of blue through lowering skies.  ‘Yes,’ I said, ’dear Master Elzevir, let us get to it quickly; and if we fall, ’tis better far to die upon the rocks below than to wait here for them to hale us off to jail.’  And with that I tried to stand, thinking I might go dot and carry even with a broken leg.  But ’twas no use, and down I sank with a groan.  Then Elzevir caught me up, holding me in his arms, with my head looking over his back, and made off for the Zigzag.  And as we slunk along, close to the cliff-side, I saw, between the brambles, Maskew lying with his face turned up to the morning sky.  And there was the little red hole in the middle of his forehead, and a thread of blood that welled up from it and trickled off on to the sward.

It was a sight to stagger any man, and would have made me swoon perhaps, but that there was no time, for we were at the end of the under-cliff, and Elzevir set me down for a minute, before he buckled to his task.  And ’twas a task that might cow the bravest, and when I looked upon the Zigzag, it seemed better to stay where we were and fall into the hands of the Posse than set foot on that awful way, and fall upon the rocks below.  For the Zigzag started off as a fair enough chalk path, but in a few paces narrowed down till it was but a whiter thread against the grey-white cliff-face, and afterwards turned sharply back, crossing a hundred feet direct above our heads.  And then I smelt an evil stench, and looking about, saw the blown-out carcass of a rotting sheep lie close at hand.

‘Faugh,’ said Elzevir, ‘tis a poor beast has lost his foothold.’

It was an ill omen enough, and I said as much, beseeching him to make his own way up the Zigzag and leave me where I was, for that they might have mercy on a boy.

‘Tush!’ he cried; ’it is thy heart that fails thee, and ’tis too late now to change counsel.  We have fifteen minutes yet to win or lose with, and if we gain the cliff-top in that time we shall have an hour’s start, or more, for they will take all that to search the under-cliff.  And Maskew, too, will keep them in check a little, while they try to bring the life back to so good a man.  But if we fall, why, we shall fall together, and outwit their cunning.  So shut thy eyes, and keep them tight until I bid thee open them.’  With that he caught me up again, and I shut my eyes firm, rebuking myself for my faint-heartedness, and