We warily crept along this, steadying ourselves by the naked roots of the shrubs that clung to every fissure. As we proceeded, the narrow path became still more contracted, rendering it difficult for us to maintain our footing, until suddenly, as we reached an angle of the wall of rock where we had expected it to widen, we perceived to our consternation, that a yard or two farther on it abruptly terminated at a place we could not possibly hope to pass.
? ? ? ? Toby, as usual, led the van, and in silence I waited to learn from him how he proposed to extricate us from this new difficulty.
? ? ? ? "Well, my boy," I exclaimed, after the expiration of several minutes, during which time my companion had not uttered a word: "what's to be done now?"
? ? ? ? He replied in a tranquil tone that probably the best thing we could do in the present strait was to get out of it as soon as possible.
? ? ? ? "Yes, my dear Toby, but tell me how we are to get out of it."
? ? ? ? "Something in this sort of style," he replied; and at the same moment, to my horror, he slipped sideways off the rock, and, as I then thought, by good fortune merely, alighted among the spreading branches of a species of palm tree, that shooting its hardy roots along a ledge below, curved its trunk upwards into the air, and presented a thick mass of foliage about twenty feet below the spot where we had thus suddenly been brought to a stand-still.
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