CHAPTER XII
ON THE QUARRY SHELF
There was an instant of incredulous horror
on the cliff top. Then Polly's smothered
gasp broke the silence, and the two boys were on
their feet. Short of the edge, Ned faltered for a
moment, sick and trembling, and it was Bob who
crouched on hands and knees and looked first
down the steeply sloping face of rock. Beside
him the earth was still trickling where Laurie's
unwary foot had broken off an overhanging
crust.
For a second Bob's gaze, fearfully searching the rocky débris far below, saw nothing. Then came a sharp cry of relief from Ned, who had now dropped beside him, and at the same moment Bob's gaze, retraveling the face of rock, fell on Laurie.
About thirty feet below them he was, his feet set on a shelf scarcely four inches wide, his right hand stretched high and its fingers hooked over
