Burton knew that he couldn't jump that far. He might get close, but close wasn't good enough.
Joe was stronger than two Hercules melded, but he was far too heavy. Ah Qaaq and Gilgamesh were also very strong but too squat and heavy. Good long jumpers weren't built like them. Turpin was tall but too muscular. Nur was very light and had a surprising wiry strength, but he was too short. The two white women and de Marbot were also too short and weren't good jumpers. That left Frigate, Croomes, and Tai-Peng.
The American knew what Burton was thinking. His face was pale. He was even better at long jumping then he'd been on Earth and had once leaped there to an unofficial distance of twenty-five feet during a practice jump but a wind had been behind his back. His normal distance was about twenty-two feet on Earth and twenty-three here. Nor had he ever jumped under such bad conditions.
"We should have brought along Jesse Owens," he said faintly.
"Hallelujah!" Croomes shrieked, startling the others. "Hallelujah! The Lord saw fit to make me a great jumper! I'm one of His chosen! He saw to it that I could leap like a goat and dance like King David for His glory! And now He gives me a chance to jump over the pit of Hell! Thank you, Lord!"
Burton moved close to Frigate and said, softly, "Are you going to allow a woman to jump first? Show you up?"
"It wouldn't be the first time," Frigate said. He shrugged. "Why shouldn't I let her go first? The problem here is not one of sex but of ability."
"You're scared!"
"You bet I am. Anybody but a psychotic would be."
He went to Blessed Croomes, though, and questioned her about her record. She said that she hadn't done much jumping on Earth, but, when she was living in a state called Wendisha, she had made twenty-two feet a number of times.
"How did you know it was that?" Frigate said. "We had an exact system of measurement on the Rex, but very few places would have such."
"What we did," Croomes said, "was guess what a foot was, It looked pretty close to me. Anyway, I know that I can do it! The Lord will buoy me up on the wings of my faith, and I will skip over it like one of His sweet gazelles!"
"Yeah, and you'll fall short, too, and smash your brains out against the edge of the gap," Frigate said.
"Why don't we mark out a distance?" Nur said. "Then you three can practice-jump, and we'll see who's the best."
"On this hard rock? We heed a sand pit!"
Croomes said that they should throw a lantern over to the other side to provide a marker. Frigate cast one attached to a rope, so that it lit near the edge, rolled back, then stopped on its side several inches from the dropoff. Its beam pointed at them over the black abysm.
He pulled it back with the rope and threw it again. This time it rolled, but by whipping the rope he got it to an upright position and the light shone at right angles to them.
"Okay, so it can be done," Frigate said. "But I'll pull it back now. Nobody can jump until he's had a good night's sleep. Anyway, I'm too tired now to try it."
"Let's line up the run path with lanterns," Blessed said. "I'd like to get a good idea of how it'll look."
They did so, and Frigate and Croomes paced to where they would start their run, if they did. The marker for the leap was a lantern a few inches from the edge.
"It has to be a one-time thing," Frigate said. "We'll really have to warm up first. This cold air.... On the other hand, the air is thinner and offers less resistance. That probably helped that black jumper—what's his name? such is fame—make that fabulous twenty-seven feet and four and a half inches in the Olympics at Mexico City. But, back to the first hand, we haven't really gotten acclimated yet to the high altitude. And .we're sure as hell not in training."
Burton had said nothing to Tai-Peng since he wished to give him a chance to volunteer. The Chinese had been watching the procedure. Now he strode up to Burton and said, "I am a mighty jumper! I'm also sadly out of practice! But I will not allow a woman to be braver than I! I will make the first jump!"
His green eyes shone in the lantern beam.
Burton asked him what distance he'd cleared.
"More than that!" Tai-Peng said, pointing at the gap.
Frigate had been throwing pieces of paper up in the air to test the wind. He came up to Burton then, saying, "It blows on our left side and so it'll carry us a little to the right. But the mountain blocks most of it. I'd say it's a six- or seven-miles-an-hour wind."
"Thanks," Burton said. He kept his gaze on the Chinese. Tai-Peng was very good in athletics but not as good as he claimed to be. No one was that good. However, it was his life he was risking, and no one had asked him to do so.
Frigate spoke up loudly.
"Look! I'm really the most experienced jumper! So I should be the one to do it! And I will!"
"You've gotten over your fear?"
"Hell, no! What it is... I don't have the guts to let someone else do it. You'd all think I was a coward, and if you didn't, I would."
He turned to Nur.
"I failed to act rationally and logically. I failed you."
Nur smiled grimly at his disciple.
"You didn't fail me. You failed yourself. However, there are so many aspects to consider... anyway, you should be the one to jump."
The little Moor went up to the titanthrop and raised his head under Joe's vast nose.
"It may not be necessary for anyone to jump. Joe, do you think that I weigh as much as your pack?"
Joe frowned, and he picked up Nur with one hand under his buttocks. He held him out at arm's length and said, "Not by a long thyot."
When Nur was back on the ground, he said, "Do you think you could throw your pack across to the other side?"
Joe fingered his receding chin. "Veil, maybe. Thay, I thee vhat you're getting at! Vhy don't I try it? It von't make no differenth if the pack'th over, there and ve're over here. Ve got to get acrothth anyvay."
He lifted the enormous pack above his head, walked to the edge, looked once, swung the pack twice, and heaved it. It fell a foot beyond the other edge.
Nur said, "I thought so. Joe, you throw me across now."
The titanthrop picked up the Moor with one hand against the little man's chest and one under his buttocks. Then he swung him back and forth, saying, "Vone, two, three!"
Nur arced across the abyss, landed on his feet a yard beyond the lip, and rolled. When he got up, he danced with joy.
Joe then cast Nur's lantern at the end of a rope. Nur caught it though he staggered back a little.
Nur came back out of the fog a few minutes later.
"I found a big boulder to tie the rope to, but I can't move it by myself! We'll need about five strong men!"
"Over you go!" Joe said, and he swung Burton back and forth. Though Burton wanted to shout that he was much heavier than Nur, he refrained. The gap looked twice as broad as it had up to that moment. Then he was shot up and outward while Joe yelled, "Vatch your athth, Dick!" and his laughter bellowed. The many-thousands-feet abyss was beneath him for a frightening second, and then Burton struck on his feet and was propelled forward. He rolled, but even so the rock thumped him hard.
A moment later, his pack followed. Joe then threw all the packs across, and he lifted Frigate and hurled him on over.
One by one, they followed until Ah Qaaq and Joe were the only ones left. Shouting, "Tho long, fatty!" the titanthrop hurled the May an. He hit closer to the edge than anyone but had a foot to spare.
"Now vhat?" Joe yelled.
Burton said, "There's a big boulder that must weigh almost as much as you, Joe. Go roll it up here, and then tie the end of the rope around it."
"That'th half a mile back," Joe said. "Vhy didn't you all thtay here and help me before you vent over?"