"It would be a pretty tough job, anyhow, but at the farthest end of the rock is a place where it goes sharp down, as if cut with a knife. That would be the best place to try. I take it to be about two hundred feet deep. Beyond, the ground seems to slope regularly away. If I could have got a rope I should have tried it, but they are pretty scarce commodities up here--in fact, I have never seen a piece twenty feet long since we came. What sort of rope have you got?" Dick opened the front of his garment, and showed the rope round his body. Captain Holland gave a low whistle of dismay. "I should not like to trust a child with that thing, Dick, much less a grown man. It is no thicker than a flag halliard." "It is thin, Father, but there is no fear as to its strength. I tested every yard of it, and found it would bear six hundred weight." "Well, that is ample; but how is one to hold on to a cord like that?" "That is just what we want you to tell us, Father. There must be some way of managing it, if one could but hit upon it." "Yes, that is so, lad," the sailor said thoughtfully. "I will think it over. Anyhow, I think I could lower you both down, and by knotting it I might get hold enough to come down after you; but even the knots would be precious small." "One might get over that, Father, by fastening a short stick across, every five or six feet; or every two or three feet, if you like." "Good, Dick. That would prevent one's coming down with a run, certainly, and by keeping it between one's legs, one could always get a rest. Yes, that will do, lad, if I can think of nothing better. There are a lot of spears stowed away, in the room adjoining mine. If we were to cut them up into six-inch lengths, with one of a foot long to each ten, for sitting on, they would be just the thing." "That is capital, Father. I had a lot of practice in rope climbing, before I came out, and I am sure that I could manage with the help that would give. I don't think Surajah could, but we could let him down first, easily. Now, as to your prison."