“No matter. A fire is always good fun. We might boil water, anyway. Can you go on up from here, Kitty?”
“Yes. Climb around that corner and then up about twenty feet. After that you work around to the left on some crumbly rock, and then go up where there’s a sort of fissure. That brings you pretty nearly to the top. There’s a bit of hard climbing after that though, about ten feet or so.”
Tad walked to the further side of the lunching place and cast a speculative eye up the face of the cliff. Then he looked down at his rubber soled shoes and nodded.
“Looks easy,” he said carelessly. “I’ll try it after luncheon I guess.”
“You may if you like,” said Rodney, who had followed him to the edge. “I wouldn’t go up there for fifty dollars!”
“It isn’t so awfully hard,” said Kitty. “Got to keep your head, though. Mustn’t slip, either. Might have a bad fall.”
Rodney looked down for some fifteen or twenty feet and shuddered. “You might,” he agreed dryly, “even from here. If you fell further up I guess you’d never know what struck you.”
The twins were already undoing the parcels and arranging the luncheon, and Kitty volunteered to go for water. As, however, they had brought along nothing larger than tin cups it was decided that they should do without water until they wanted it, and then each one should go for his own. “We can bring up enough for Matty and May in a cup,” said Rodney. But Tad instantly declared that if he didn’t have a drink at once he wouldn’t be able to eat a mouthful, and so presently set off down the path with four cups to fill.
Kitty and Rodney helped set the viands around on paper napkins and box covers. There were sandwiches and hard boiled eggs, doughnuts――Tad had insisted on doughnuts――and cake, a jar of currant jelly, olives, pickles, and bananas. They were observing the spread approvingly when the sound of scrambling footsteps reminded them of Tad. He was toiling up the path, two cups of water in each hand, pausing at intervals to maintain his equilibrium, and grunting fearsomely. Now and then the water from the cups splashed out into his shoes or on to his shirt. By careful management he finally attained to within a few yards of the ledge, and just as those on top were about to accord congratulations something happened.