position and will retain the keeper 16 in that position unless the keeper 16 is physically displaced to its open position at the stop 26 the spring 28 has outwardly directed tabs 32 fig2 amp 6 which enables one to conveniently apply an axially directed force to the end of the spring 28 so as to move that end away from the stop 26 or in other words compresses or contracts the spring 28 in this regard the width of the shank 10 that is the distance between its side edges 14 is only slightly less than the inside diameter of the spring 28 so that the spring 28 is compressed without restraint from the shank 10 since the shank 10 is quite thin considerable space exists between each of its side faces 12 and the surrounding convolutions of the spring 28 and indeed these spaces form channels 34 for receiving the rope b fig4 each rope channel 34 is thus somewhat wider than the diameter of the rope b and easily accommodates a segment of the rope b within the shank 10 is an elongated aperture 36 fig5 the major axis of which lies coincident to the axis x of the shank 10 the aperture 36 has.