His keenly observant eyes, trained by the exigencies of his trade to
take note of small things, and rendered eager by this newly awakened
ambition, scanned the cliff towering above them. He perceived the
extreme irregularity of its front, and numerous peculiarities of
formation which had escaped him hitherto. Suddenly his puzzled face
brightened to the birth of an idea. By heavens! it might be done!
Surely it might be done! Inch by inch he traced the obscure passage,
seeking to impress each faint detail upon his memory--that narrow ledge
within easy reach of an upstretched arm, the sharp outcropping of
rock-edges here and there, the deep gash as though some giant axe had
cleaved the stone, those sturdy cedars growing straight out over the
chasm like the bowsprits of ships, while all along the way, irregular
and ragged, varied rifts not entirely unlike the steps of a crazy
staircase.
The very conception of such an exploit caused his flesh to creep. But
he was not of that class of men who fall back dazed before the face of
danger. Again and again, led by an impulse he was unable to resist, he
studied that precipitous rock, every nerve tingling to the newborn
hope.
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