It almost seemed as though some power were drawing her, compelling her to relax her muscles and slide down, down into those awful depths.

Then the memory of a half-caught phrase she had overheard flashed across her mind: "If you feel giddy, always look up, not down." As though in obedience to some inner voice, she opened her eyes and looked up to where, only a few battered steps above, she could see the door of the castle.
If she could only make it! Rising cautiously to her knees she crawled up one more step and rested a moment, digging her fingers into the crevices of the rock and finding a precarious foothold against a projecting ledge.

Keeping her eyes fixed upon the door she scrambled up a few inches further, then paused again, exhausted with the strain.
Two more steps remained.

Two more desperate efforts, while she fought the hideous temptation to look downwards.

For an instant she almost lost all knowledge of what she was doing.