This they ascended for the better part of an hour and Jean halted on a convenient ledge.

Sylvia had time to look down.

She had climbed with her face to the wall of rock, her eyes searching quickly for her holds, fixing her feet securely, gripping firmly with her hands, avoiding the loose boulders.

Moreover, the rope had worried her.

When she had left it at its length between herself and the guide in front of her, it would hang about her feet, threatening to trip her, or catch as though in active malice in any crack which happened to be handy.