Instantly he cast loose the rope-ladder, and, armed only with a revolver, dropped down the rock.

He was quite invisible to the enemy.

On reaching the ground he listened for a moment.

There was no sound save the occasional reports ninety yards away.

He hitched up the lower rungs of the ladder until they were six feet from the level, and then crept noiselessly, close to the rock, for some forty yards.
He halted beside a small poon-tree, and stooped to find something embedded near its roots.