So shut thy eyes, and keep them tight until I bid thee open them.' With that he caught me up again, and I shut my eyes firm, rebuking myself for my faint-heartedness, and not telling him how much my foot hurt me.

In a minute I knew from Elzevir's steps that he had left the turf and was upon the chalk.

Now I do not believe that there were half a dozen men beside in England who would have ventured up that path, even free and untrammelled, and not a man in all the world to do it with a full-grown lad in his arms.

Yet Elzevir made no bones of it, nor spoke a single word; only he went very slow, and I felt him scuffle with his foot as he set it forward, to make sure he was putting it down firm.
I said nothing, not wishing to distract him from his terrible task, and held my breath, when I could, so that I might lie quieter in his arms.
Thus he went on for a time that seemed without end, and yet was really but a minute or two; and by degrees I felt the wind, that we could scarce perceive at all on the under-cliff, blow fresher and cold on the cliff-side.

And then the path grew steeper and steeper, and Elzevir went slower and slower, till at last he spoke: 'John, I am going to stop; but open not thy eyes till I have set thee down and bid thee.' I did as bidden, and he lowered me gently, setting me on all-fours upon the path; and speaking again: 'The path is too narrow here for me to carry thee, and thou must creep round this corner on thy hands and knees.