Alan looked for Lynde to follow , but she did not , and he speedily saw that there was something unusual about the dog 's behaviour . The animal circled around him , still barking excitedly , then ran off for a short distance , stopped , barked again , and returned , repeating the manoeuvre . It was plain that he wanted Alan to follow him , and it occurred to the young minister that the dog 's mistress must be in danger of some kind . Instantly he set off after him ; and the dog , with a final sharp bark of satisfaction , sprang up the low bank into the spruces . Alan followed him across the peninsula and then along the further shore , which rapidly grew steep and high . Half a mile down the cliffs were rocky and precipitous , while the beach beneath them was heaped with huge boulders . Alan followed the dog along one of the narrow paths with which the barrens abounded until nearly a mile from Four Winds . Then the animal halted , ran to the edge of the cliff and barked . It was an ugly-looking place where a portion of the soil had evidently broken away recently , and Alan stepped cautiously out to the brink and looked down . He could not repress an exclamation of dismay and alarm . A few feet below him Lynde Oliver was lying on a mass of mossy soil which was apparently on the verge of slipping over a sloping shelf of rock , below which was a sheer drop of thirty feet to the cruel boulders below . The extreme danger of her position was manifest at a glance ; the soil on which she lay was stationary , yet it seemed as if the slightest motion on her part would send it over the brink . Lynde lay movelessly ; her face was white , and both fear and appeal were visible in her large dilated eyes . Yet she was quite calm and a faint smile crossed her pale lips as she saw the man and the dog . `` Good faithful Pat , so you did bring help , '' she said . `` But how can I help you , Miss Oliver ? '' said Alan hoarsely . `` I can not reach you -- and it looks as if the slightest touch or jar would send that broken earth over the brink . '' `` I fear it would . You must go back to Four Winds and get a rope . ''
`` And leave you here alone -- XXXXX such danger ? ''
after along as beneath down in of until while with