"Still,"
he added, "I have a rope above which I use upon dark nights. I will
ascend and let it down."
Ascend he did accordingly; indeed, it was a wondrous sight to see his
withered legs scrambling from step to step as unconcernedly as though
he were going upstairs. No monkey could have been more agile, or more
absolutely impervious to the effects of height. Soon he vanished in--or,
rather, through--the crest of the wall, and presently appeared again on
the top step, whence he let down a stout hide rope, remarking that it
was securely tied. So anxious was Meyer to enter the hidden place of
which he had dreamed so long that he scarcely waited for it to reach
his hand before he began the climb, which he accomplished safely. Then,
sitting on the top of the wall, he directed Mr. Clifford to fasten the
end of the rope round Benita's waist, and her turn came.
It was not so bad as she expected, for she was agile, and the knowledge
that the rope would prevent disaster gave her confidence. In a very
little while she had grasped Meyer's outstretched hand, and been drawn
into safety through a kind of aperture above the top step. Then the rope
was let down again for her father, who tied it about his middle. Well
was it that he did so, since when he was about half-way up, awkwardness,
or perhaps loss of nerve--neither of them wonderful in an old
man--caused his foot to slip, and had it not been for the rope which
Meyer and the Molimo held, he would certainly have fallen into the
river some hundreds of feet below.
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