Then screened by the bushes, she could
have reached out and touched Oka Sayye. As his feet found a
solid resting place on the ledge on which Linda and Katy stood,
and while he was still clinging to the bushes, Katherine
O'Donovan advanced upon him. He had felt that his feet were
firm, let go his hold, and turned, when he faced the infuriated
Irishwoman. She had pulled the strap from around her neck,
slipped the axe from it, and with a strong thrust she planted the
head of it against Oka Sayye's chest so hard that she almost fell
forward. The Jap plunged backward among the bushes, the roots of
which had supported Linda while she used the glasses. Then he
fell, sliding among them, snatching wildly. Linda gripped the
overhanging growth behind which she had been screened, and leaned
forward.
"He has a hold; he is coming back up, Katy!" she cried.
Katy took another step forward. She looked over the cliff down
an appalling depth of hundreds of feet. Deliberately she raised
the axe, circled it round her head and brought it down upon that
particular branch to which Oka Sayye was clinging. She cut it
through, and the axe rang upon the stone wall behind it. As she
swayed forward Linda reached out, gripped Katy and pulled her
back.
"Get him?" she asked tersely, as if she were speaking of a rat or
a rattlesnake.
Katy sank back limply against the wall. Linda slowly turned her
around, and as she faced the rock, "Squeeze tight against it shut
your eyes, and keep a stiff upper lip," she cautioned.
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