The ledge did not permit of much comfort.  Nevertheless he managed to turn upon it and to lean back against the cliff, with his brown face to sky and sea.  He even, after a moment, took out a cigarette and lighted it.  The sun shone full in his eyes, and he seemed to revel in it.  A sun-worshipper also, apparently!

He smoked his cigarette to the end very deliberately, flicking the ash from time to time towards the raging water below.  When he had quite finished, he stretched his arms wide with a gesture of sublime self-confidence, faced about, and very composedly continued his climb.

It grew more and more arduous as he neared the frowning summit.  He had to feel his way with the utmost caution.  Once he missed his footing, and slipped several feet before he could recover himself, and after this experience he took a clasp-knife from his pocket and notched himself footholds where none offered.  It was a very lengthy business, and the sun was dipping downwards to the sea ere he came within reach of his goal.  The top of the cliff overhung where he first approached it, and he had to work a devious course below it till he came to a more favourable place.

Reaching a gap at length, he braced himself for the final effort.  The surface of the cliff here was loose, and the stones rattled continually from beneath his feet; but he clung like a limpet, nothing daunted, and at last his hands were gripped in the coarse grass that fringed the summit.  Sheer depth was below him, and the inward-curving cliff offered no possibility of foothold.

He stood, gathering his strength for a last stupendous effort.  It was a supreme moment.  It meant abandoning the support on which he stood and depending entirely upon the strength of his arms to attain to safety.  The risk was desperate.  He stood bracing himself to take it.

Finally, with an upward fling of the head, as of one who diced with the gods, he gripped that perilous edge and dared the final throw.  Slowly, with stupendous effort, he hoisted himself up.  It was the work of an expert athlete; none other would have attempted it.

Up he went and up, steadily, strongly; his head came level with his hands; he peered over the edge of the cliff.  The strain was terrific.  The careless smile was gone from his lips.  In that instant he no longer ignored what lay behind him; he knew the suspense of the gambler who pauses after he has thrown before he lifts the dice-box to read his fate.

Up, and still up!  The grass was beginning to yield in his clutching fingers; he dug them into the earth below.  Now his shoulders were above the edge; his chest also, heaving with strenuous effort.  To lower himself again was impossible.  His feet dangled over space.  And the surging of the water below him was as the roaring of an angry monster cheated of its prey.

He set his teeth.  He was nearing the end of his strength.  Had he, after all, attempted the impossible, flung the dice too recklessly, dared his fate too far?  If so, he would pay the penalty swiftly, swiftly, down among the cruel rocks where many another had perished before him.