This was by no means an easy or a quick process.

He gnawed and bit at it long before the tough rope gave way.

At length Alice was freed, and she immediately set to work to undo the fastenings of the other two; but her delicate fingers were not well suited to such rough work, and a considerable time elapsed before the three were finally at large.
The instant they were so, Corrie said, "Now we must go down to the foot of the cliff, and look for poor Bumpus.

Oh, dear me! I doubt he is killed." The look of horror which all three cast over the stupendous precipice showed that they had little hope of ever again seeing their rugged friend alive.

But, without wasting time in idle remarks, they at once hastened to the foot of the cliff by the shortest route they could find.
Here, after a short time, they discovered the object of their solicitude lying, apparently dead, on his back among the rocks.
When Bumpus struck the water, after being tossed over the cliff, his head was fortunately downward; and his skull, being the thickest and hardest bone in his body, had withstood the terrible shock to which it had been subjected without damage, though the brain within was, for a time, incapacitated from doing duty.