continued; and presently, finding precarious foothold on a narrow ledge
halfway up, he stopped to wipe his forehead and laugh with merriment
unfeigned. He was plainly in love with life--one in whose eyes all things
were good, but yet who loved the hazard of them even better.

The ledge did not permit of much comfort. Nevertheless he managed to
turn upon it and to lean back against the cliff, with his brown face to
sky and sea. He even, after a moment, took out a cigarette and lighted
it. The sun shone full in his eyes, and he seemed to revel in it. A
sun-worshipper also, apparently!

He smoked his cigarette to the end very deliberately, flicking the
ash from time to time towards the raging water below. When he had
quite finished, he stretched his arms wide with a gesture of sublime
self-confidence, faced about, and very composedly continued his climb.

It grew more and more arduous as he neared the frowning summit. He had to
feel his way with the utmost caution. Once he missed his footing, and
slipped several feet before he could recover himself, and after this
experience he took a clasp-knife from his pocket and notched himself
footholds where none offered. It was a very lengthy business, and the sun
was dipping downwards to the sea ere he came within reach of his goal.
The top of the cliff overhung where he first approached it, and he had to
work a devious course below it till he came to a more favourable place.

Reaching a gap at length, he braced himself for the final effort. The
surface of the cliff here was loose, and the stones rattled continually
from beneath his feet; but he clung like a limpet, nothing daunted, and
at last his hands were gripped in the coarse grass that fringed the
summit. Sheer depth was below him, and the inward-curving cliff offered