Flattening himself against the ledge wall, Domba inched past the mastiff. Dominic reached out to the swinging rope and missed it. He caught it on the second swing, at the same moment that Domba grabbed his shoulder with one hand. Seizing the rope with both hands and his teeth, Dominic swung out with Domba clinging to him. Ben and Karay, with the help of Ned’s jaws, leaned back and took the strain of both bodies. The cloak made a ragged, tearing sound as Dominic spun. Domba was still clinging behind him as they hit the rock face. His head cracked against it and he let go.
“Yeeeeeaaaaarrrrr!”
Dominic tried not to look at the robber’s body sailing through empty space. As he felt the cloak rope ripping, he babbled out a stream of entreaties. “Pull me up, Ben, pull me up pull me up don’t let me fall, Ben, please please please!”
Next thing he knew, Dominic was clutching both of Ben’s hands as Karay and Ned clung grimly to the shredding rope. “It’s alright, Dom, I’ve got you, safe and sound. Up ye come!”
Rouge looked across to where the four escapees perched in the crack on the mountain face. He wagged a finger at them, as if reproving naughty children. “Done it now, ain’t ye. Gone an’ killed my poor friend Domba!”
Karay shouted back at the robber. “Rubbish, it was his own stupid fault, you’ll get the same if you try anything!”
Rouge shook his head and laughed. “Hoho, brave words, little maid. But I ain’t tryin’ anything. You an’ your pals are stuck there with no place to go…. Come on, climb back over here, I won’t hurt ye!”
Ben had seen the robber’s type beforequite a few times. He threw back his head and laughed at Rouge. “Haha, who d’you think you’re trying to fool? We know you’re a Razan. We’ll stay right here, thankee!”
Rouge wound the mastiff’s chain around his hand as he replied. “Right then, you stay there. As for me, I’ll go back to camp an’ get some others. We’ll be back, carryin’ muskets!”
He noted the stunned silence and the anxious looks the young people exchanged. “Ain’t so cheeky now, are ye?”
Ben caught Ned’s thoughts in the pause which followed. “Dear angel, remember those promises I made to you? Well, er, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to break them a bit. But it’s all in a good cause, to save my friends’ lives. So forgive me!”
Ned teetered on the edge of the crack, tail straight out, hackles rising and teeth bared. The black Labrador began barking, growling and snarling thunderously at Gurz. Ben took hold of his dog’s collar. “Ned, what’s wrong, boy?”
But Ned ignored him, rearing up on his hind legs, straining against the hand holding his collar. Foam flecked from the Labrador’s mouth as he howled like a wild animal at the mastiff.
Gurz howled back and set up a series of short angry barks.
Rouge tugged on the dog’s chain. “Quit that row, ye great idiot!”
Ned barked in return, roaring furiously. The rock face resounded with the noise of both dogs, then without warning Gurz took off, dragging Rouge with him. The robber’s feet skidded on the ice as the huge mastiff pulled him forward. Gurz made a massive leap out into space, as though he were trying to reach the crack with a mighty bound. But he never made it. Both man and mastiff plummeted into the valley, howling the last sounds they would make on this earth. It was a long way downthey looked like two black spots crumpled on the rocky foothills.
Dominic could only shake his head in bewilderment. “What happened there?”
Ned explained mentally to Ben. “I made some nasty remarks about his parents, his mother the donkey and his father the pig. Then I challenged him to a fight, but I said that he could never jump this far, like I had!”
Ben stroked his dog’s head, staring into the liquid brown eyes. “But we swung you on the rope from the ledge to here.”
Ned managed a doggy look of innocence. “Aye, but he hadn’t arrived to see that part. Mastiffs aren’t too bright, y’know. I’m sorry I had to do it, but that redheaded rogue didn’t leave us too much choice. ‘Twas either that or get shot.”
Ben ruffled his friend’s ears. “I’m sure the angel will forgive you. I certainly do, it was a very clever idea!”
Bright morning sun began driving away the clouds and warming the air. Dominic flexed his stiff legs. “Well, friends, where to now?”
As if in answer to the question, there was a piteous call. “Maaaahaaah!”
Ben pointed back to the narrow ledge. “Goats!” Two of the creatures stood staring at them across the void, shaggy-coated, cloven-hoofed and with expressions of curiosity in their odd eyes. By the difference in their sizes, they looked like a nanny goat and her little kid. The mother nuzzled her little one as it stood bleating, “Maaah maaaaahaaah!”
A voice from around the bend called to them. “Sissy, Paris, what’ve I told you about running off like that? If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times!”
A large, strong-looking woman clad in man’s attire came around the bend. Over the rough cloak she wore was a coil of rope with an ice axe tucked into its loops. She tended to the goats, shooing them back off along the ledge, before turning her homely, weather-beaten face to the four friends. “What are ye doing out there, children? You don’t look like Razan, but who can tell these days?”
Instinctively Ben knew she was friendly. He smiled at her. “No, marm, we’re not Razan, we were just trying to escape from them. But we’re stuck out here, I’m afraid.”
The goatherd lady returned Ben’s smile. She peered over the ledge at the three tiny figures crumpled below on the rocks. “The only good Razan’s a dead ‘un, you did away with them well.”
Karay retorted, a little indignantly, “No, we didn’t, it was their own fault. And anyway, they’d have killed us if they could have!”
The woman shrugged the rope from her shoulders. “No matter. If you stay there much longer, you’ll freeze. Let’s get you back to safety. Huh, you’re worse than some of my goats for getting y’selves stuck in awkward places!”
She tied one end of the rope to her axe handle and began whirling the device expertly. Hurling it high over their heads, she landed the axe in a rock fissure above them. Tugging to make sure the rope would not drop, she threw it to Ben. “Tie the dog on. Give him a good hard push, away from me. I’ll catch him on the backswing.”
Ben heard Ned thinking as he was hurled off across the rock face. “Whoooooo! Hope the good lady has strong hands!”
He had no need to worry. The big woman caught him lightly and set him on the ledge. He sent Ben a relieved thought. “Hahaha, she’s twice as strong as Anaconda!”
Karay went next, then Dominic and finally Ben. When they were all safe, Ben held his hand out and introduced himself and his companions.
The woman shook his hand cheerilyshe had a grip like a vise. Ben winced. “Thank you very much, marm, we’re sorry to put you to any bother.”
She flicked the axe from its fissure. Catching it skilfully, she wound the rope back over her shoulder.
“My name’s Arnela. ‘Tis no bother, lad. I’ve swung crevasses on the rope many a time. Aye, and with a pair of goats slung across my back. Come on, you’ll want feeding. Young’uns always do, goats or humans.”
When they got off the ledge, Arnela led them on a switchback of a route through secret paths and over jumbles of rock. She gathered goats along the way, chiding each as she herded them ahead of her. “Achilles, where’ve you been, you badly behaved fellow! Clovis, tell that kid of yours to stay with the rest! Shame on you, Pantyro, stop acting the goat and lead the herd like I taught you to!”