On the right was a sheer precipice one hundred feet high; on the left was an impenetrable thicket.

In despair he thought for an instant of clubbing his rifle and meeting the monster in close conflict; but the utter hopelessness of such an effort was too apparent to be entertained for a moment.

He glanced up at the overhanging cliffs.

There were one or two rents and projections close above him.

In the twinkling of an eye he sprang up and grasped a ledge of about an inch broad, ten or twelve feet up, to which he clung while he glanced upward.