It was no spirit of bravado that gave rise to his reckless speech of an hour previous.  It was simply a spontaneous outpouring of his real nature, an unpremeditated expression of that supreme carelessness with which he regarded the future, the small value he set on life.  He truly felt as utterly indifferent toward fate as his words signified.  Deeply conscious of a life long ago irretrievably wrecked, everything behind a chaos, everything before worthless,—­for years he had been actually seeking death; a hundred times he had gladly marked its apparent approach, a smile of welcome upon his lips.  Yet it had never quite succeeded in reaching him, and nothing had been gained beyond a reputation for cool, reckless daring, which he did not in the least covet.  But now, miracle of all miracles, just as the end seemed actually attained, seemed beyond any possibility of being turned aside, he began to experience a desire to live—­he wanted to save this girl.

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.  God helping them, even so desperate a deed might be accomplished, although it would test the foot and nerve of a Swiss mountaineer.  He glanced again uneasily toward his companion, and saw the same motionless figure, the same sober face turned deliberately away.  Hampton did not smile, but his square jaw set, and he clinched his hands.  He had no fear that she might fall him, but for the first time in all his life he questioned his own courage.

CHAPTER III

BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH