“But we can, we must,” she cried imperatively.  “Go to his cabin quickly and bring some ropes.  There is plenty of strong rope there.  You can run more quickly than I. Go.”

“But the risk.”  Jose shook his head dubiously.  “I shall be in full sight all the way.”

“What of it?” she cried frantically.  “The moments pass and we are doing nothing.  No one will see you.  Oh, go.”  Then, as he still hesitated, a sudden thought struck her.  She tore open the neck of her gown and drew out the little black leather bag of loose stones.  “Look!” she pulled it open and held it out to him that he might see the gleaming jewels inside.  “There, will that make it worth your while?  They are yours, Jose, if you will only go.”

With a low exclamation of surprise and admiration, Jose bent over them.  Then he looked at Pearl, his eyes alive with darting gleams of avarice.  He would have risked his life any time, almost without a thought, in order to gain them, and here without his even lifting a finger, they had fallen into his hands, straight out of heaven.  It was evidently a reward for the patience with which he had borne the long days that he had lain hidden in Gallito’s rock-hewn chamber in the Mont d’Or.

“It shall never be said of Crop-eared Jose that he left a friend in distress,” he exclaimed virtuously, and, stuffing the little bag in his pocket, sped up the hill.

Uttering broken expressions of relief, Pearl again threw herself flat on the ground and gazed over the edge of the cliff.  And, as she lay thus, moaning out passionately tender words which Harry, lying motionless and unconscious, could not hear, a sudden thought struck her.  She would go to him.  She looked down, far down where those rocky walls lost themselves in indefinite hazes and shuddered; but another glance at Harry and courage flowed to her again.  She saw where, on the narrow projecting ledge and on the trunks of those up-springing pines, she could get a foothold near him, if it were but possible for her to climb down.  Scanning the wall closely, it seemed to her rough and jagged enough for her to do so with comparative safety.

Just as she reached this decision, she heard a faint holloo from the same direction in which Jose had come and, turning her head quickly, she saw Mrs. Nitschkan hastening over the hill toward her.

“Gosh a’mighty!” exclaimed the gypsy, when she had come within speaking distance.  “What kind of a howdy-do is this?  I brought up a bite for Jose to eat and, although I’ve stood down there whistling my head off, he never poked his head out of the ground, the jack-rabbit!  And the next thing I see is you lying flat in the mud.”

“Oh, Nitschkan!” Tears of relief were streaming down Pearl’s face.  “Thank God that you’ve come.  Harry fell over the cliff.  We can see him, and Jose’s gone to the cabin to get ropes.”

With many exclamations of surprise Mrs. Nitschkan peered over the edge of the ravine.  “Saved by them little sticks of pine trees and a piece of rock no wider than my foot!  Ain’t that the workings of Providence for you!”