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 -- in such danger ? '' `` Pat will stay with me . Besides , there is nothing else to do . You will find a rope in that little house where you put the water for Emily . Father and Emily are away . I think I am quite safe here if I do n't move at all . '' Alan 's own common sense told him that , as she said , there was nothing else to do and , much as he hated to leave her alone thus , he realized that he must lose no time in doing it . `` I 'll be back as quickly as possible , '' he said hurriedly . Alan had been a noted runner at college and his muscles had not forgotten their old training . Yet it seemed to him an age ere he reached Four Winds , secured the rope , and returned .
At every flying step he was haunted by the thought of the girl lying on the brink XXXXX the precipice and the fear that she might slip over it before he could rescue her .
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