Katherine O'Donovan promptly seized the axe, caught its
carrying strap lying beside it, thrust the handle through, swung
it over her own head, dropped it between her shoulders, and
ripping off her dress skirt she started up the cliff after Linda.
Linda was climbing so swiftly and so absorbedly that she reached
the top before she heard a sound behind her. Then she turned
with a white face, and her mouth dropped open as she saw Katy
three fourths of the way up the cliff. For one second she was
again stiff with terror, then, feeling she could do nothing, she
stepped back out of sight and waited a second until Katy's red
head and redder face appeared over the edge. Realizing that her
authority was of no avail, that Katy would follow her no matter
where she went or what she did, and with no time to argue, Linda
simply called to her encouragingly: "Follow where I go; take
your time; hang tight, old dear, it's dangerous!"
She started around the side of the mountain, heading almost
straight upward, traveling as swiftly and as noiselessly as
possible. Over big boulders, on precarious footing, clinging to
bushes, they made their way until they reached a place that
seemed to be sheer above them; certainly it was for hundreds of
feet below On a point of rock screened by overhanging bushes
Linda paused until Katy overtook her.
"We are about stalled," she panted. "Find a good footing and
stay where you are. I'm going to climb out on these bushes and
see if I can get a view of the mountain side.
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