He could not get sufficient grip of the thin rope with his right hand beyond the point where it was cut, to enable him to support even half the weight that hung below.

Should it sever, as it must do very shortly, it would be torn from his grasp.
What then could be done?
Godfrey peered over the edge.

The man was swinging not more than two feet below its brink, that is to say, the updrawn loop of his stout leather belt, to which the rope was fastened, was about that distance from the brink, and on either side of it he hung down like a sack tied round the middle, quite motionless in his swoon, his head to one side and his feet to the other.
Could he reach and grasp that leather belt without falling himself, and if so, could he bear the man's weight and not be dragged over?
Godfrey shrank from the attempt; his blood curdled.

Then he pictured, again in a mind-flash, his poor companion whirling down through space to be dashed to pulp at the bottom, and the agony of his wife and children whom he knew, and who had wished to prevent him from climbing that day.
Oh! he would try.

But still a paralysing fear overcame him, making him weak and nervous.