He climbed on. He could not see Miss Sue's features, but he knew her lips whispered a prayer at his ear. "And who can gauge the height to which a good woman's prayer ascends?" thought 'Liphalet, and was inspirited by the thought--and pressed on mightily. His anxious gaze was fixed on the brow of the bank, into which the line had so deeply cut. This upper section of the face of the cliff must have been woefully weakened by the undermining of the sea that had just broken around them. He expected momentarily to see the cliff for yards on either hand topple outward and fall, overwhelming them in an avalanche. It might be that the driving of the crowbar into the hard soil beyond the patrol path was all that was needed to crack off a huge slice of the cliff's edge. Its barren top had offered nothing upon which the loop of the line could have been fixed. But he felt that he had done his best, whatever came. Shrieking above them, the wind flung the sleet and snow yards beyond the cliff's edge; therefore they were sheltered until he had climbed to the very brow of the bank. He was almost breathless; he waited a few seconds before essaying the final effort with which to drag himself and his burden out upon the level ground. It was then that he felt the earth's first tremor. The face of the cliff was actually heaving outward! The line slipped. He dropped with his burden for a foot or more. "She's goin'!" was 'Liphalet's gasped ejaculation, and he scrambled desperately upward, determined to make the brink and safety with the woman he loved. CHAPTER XXVI CAP'N JONAH'S CHALLENGE There was a satisfaction for Joe Helmford in his present mood, in putting his head down, clenching his fists, and struggling with the blowing sleet and snow as though the storm were an actual enemy. The rather impassive, gentle-mannered young man craved action to appease the turmoil aroused in his heart. Unlike 'Liphalet Truitt, who had allowed ten unfruitful years to drag by while his heart and soul starved for the woman whose fortune kept him at a distance, Helmford's young blood surged against the barrier he was setting between himself and Pearl Holden. He wanted Pearl. He believed the girl had shown him as plainly as a modest girl could, that she was interested in him. Hang Cap'n Jonah's fortune! Was it to spoil his life and that of Pearl as well? Helmford desired to take Pearl away from her present environment and to make her the object of his own care. He wanted her to come to him with empty hands but a full heart. He was quite romantic enough to feel that a single thought of the fortune which Cap'n Jonah had promised her, would utterly spoil their happiness.