Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1908).djvu/180

174 descending last, having just passed a perfectly smooth and precipitous section of the cliff relying exclusively on the rope, I rested a moment on a trifling irregularity in the rock. When I essayed to continue the descent, the rope came to me as I pulled. With a great effort I succeeded in keeping my balance on the insecure footing where I had been resting, but for a moment I felt supremely uncomfortable. The rope was apparently quite loose above, and there appeared to be no means of climbing down the rock to the gap without its aid. However, after about ten feet of it had been hauled in, no more would come, and it resisted the united efforts of my companions in the gap. Collie also managed to see an apparently possible line of descent, and skilfully coached by him, keeping the rope in my hand merely as a dernier ressort, I succeeded in reaching the welcome security of Hastings's grip and was landed in the gap.

So far as we could see, the rope had slipped off the top of the tower on to the Nantillon face, and caught in a hitch some ten feet down. We could not see whether this hitch was reliable or not, but we all agreed that the first man to go up from our present position would have an unpleasant task. As it was still doubtful whether we could scale the final peak, and thus get on to the C. P. route, this was not an impossible contingency, and we hastened forward to set the question at rest.