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A shriek of terror echoed from the cloud and the rope went slack in his hands. That meant Toni was going as well. In the few precious seconds that were left to him Ben clipped an extra krab to the upper anchor and pressed the safety rope into it. It was only some sixth sense which had made him prepare for the disaster. But it was that which prevented all three of them from falling six hundred feet down the cliff to their deaths.
He felt, rather than saw, the fall of Toni’s body somewhere away to his right. The next second came the sudden rushing, violent wrench which nearly pulled all three of them off the rock-face. His feet were jolted from their precarious toeholds and his body spiralled round in the restricted chimney. Two of the chocks of his first anchor were ripped from the rock with a sound like huge bed-springs creaking. Nevertheless those two nuts had taken the energy out of that sudden jerk and his second anchor was holding. But for how long?
For a moment Ben was on the verge of panic. The ropes were as tight as steel cables in front of his nose and he could see minute bristles springing through the surface where their structure was stressed beyond its safety limits. The remaining chock on his first anchor had bent and he blessed the extra ten minutes that he taken to form the second anchor.
But what about the others? Where exactly were they? Were they conscious? Were they even alive?
As quickly as he could Ben found toeholds for his scrabbling feet and turned his body round until he was facing the rock. His frozen fingers clumsily tied the free end of the safety rope to his harness. Then he could release himself from the climbing rope and start trying to find out what had happened.
He first checked the main climbing rope. It was still disappearing upwards out of the chimney towards where Toni had been climbing. By getting his feet firmly wedged against the rock and slowly releasing the tail of the safety rope, he was able to lean back to look up at the top of the chimney. By a stroke of good fortune the climbing rope had wedged into the crack behind a flake of limestone at the top of the chimney and the rock had held and hadn’t sheared off. That had absorbed a lot of the initial shock and was probably the reason why Ben at least was still alive. But what condition was the rope in? Was it frayed? Would it hold its double load? And what condition were the others in?
“Toni?” he called out. “Are you conscious?”
There was no reply.
He shouted more loudly “Carlos, can you hear me?” and listened.
All he could hear was the sighing of the wind.
What was he going to do? It seemed that the other guys weren’t in any condition to help themselves. Could he manhandle them into a secure position on his own? Could he get Carlos’ mobile from his rucksack to try and summon help? First of all he had to find out where they were and whether they were still alive.
He released a little more of his securing rope until he was leaning so far back that he was almost horizontal. Twisting his neck, he could just make out Toni’s head about six feet below him and a similar distance to his right. At least his friend seemed to be the right way up. His body was facing the cliff and his head hung backwards. There was no sign of blood or bruising on the part of his face which could be seen. In fact Ben was almost sure he could detect shallow breathing through his half-open mouth. But how long could he last in that exposed position with the evening advancing?
What could he do to help Toni? The guy wasn’t only a good mate. They were equal partners in the business in London. He must do something for him. If possible he should try to get him into the protection of the chimney where he could wrap him up and try to keep his body warm. He had to keep him alive until a rescue could be arranged.
Surely a search party would be sent out when it got dark and it was realised at the mountaineering centre that they hadn’t returned. But Ben didn’t know whether Carlos had made any arrangements to report back in case there was a problem. He guessed the man probably hadn’t bothered.
Nevertheless his first priority was to do his best for the others before he thought about a rescue. He started planning how to get to Toni for a start. He carefully placed his last chock in a suitable crack, took off his rucksack and secured it to the wire. Then he searched through it to see what equipment he had. There was a thirty-foot length of rope and the two non-slip jumars which Carlos had given him with something approaching a sneer.
“In case you have to pull yourself up on the rope.”
Ben had never used these things before but they looked easy enough. You clipped one on to the rope. Then you could slide it up and down and it would jam when you put a weight on it. Because it wouldn’t slip, you could hang your weight from it while you found a new footing. Then, having taken the weight on your feet, you could slide the jumar further up the rope and repeat the process. Ben hoped he could use one of these to carry Toni’s dead-weight. Then he could use the other one on a loop of rope to relieve the load while he was moving him across to the chimney.
He clipped a krab to his main anchorage and threaded the end of the loose rope through it and tied it to the front of his harness. He strapped a figure of eight to his harness and looped the other end of the rope round it so that he had a friction grip should he need it. Then he carefully climbed out of the shelter of the chimney and into the wind which now seemed to be gradually mounting towards gale force.
Taking even more care he edged the last three feet until he was beside Toni. He took one of the jumars from his belt, clipped it onto the taut climbing rope which still seemed to be holding its massive load, removed the loose end of the rope from the figure of eight on his harness and threaded it through the ring on the jumar. Then he double-tied it through the loop on the front of Toni’s harness and returned it to the figure of eight.
Now that his hands were free he could check Toni’s pulse and breathing. Both were slow but positive. His friend was unconscious and his body hung slackly from the rope, but Ben could find no sign of broken bones or damage to the skull. Of course he couldn’t tell whether he was suffering from concussion or the onset of hypothermia, but at least the guy was still alive.
Now came the difficult bit. Ben didn’t know if this going to work. He clipped the other jumar on the top part of the rope leading back to his anchorage, loosened the tail end of the rope from the figure of eight and looped it through the ring and tied the loose end back onto his harness. Experimentally he slid the device a foot up the rope until Toni’s weight came on to it. The device seemed to be holding all right. Now he could release his friend from the climbing rope and the two of them were hanging from the loop he had suspended from the main anchorage.
Partly climbing and partly using the support of the rope Ben was able to inch the jumar carrying Toni’s body up the rope towards the edge of the chimney. Everything went well until the rope snagged on the rock at the lip. In any case, Ben realised he had to get back into the chimney to move his friend to safety. There was no alternative but to climb back in by the same route that he had got out, and that included getting over Toni’s body.
That was a nasty moment but, with a bit of slipping and scrambling, he made it. Then, more firmly anchored with his legs splayed across the chimney, he was able to man-handle Toni’s body over the edge.
Now he had a new problem. His friend’s dead weight was hanging almost vertically and it was much more difficult to pull him up the last few feet. In the next half-hour Ben used the last of his reserves of strength to haul Toni the three feet or so up the funnel and secure his shoulders to the anchorage.
Then he started massaging the young Italian’s back and stomach muscles to try to relieve any strain which might have been caused by hanging for so long with that great load suspended from him. Next he took a carton of fruit juice from his backpack and tried to coax some of the fluid down Toni’s throat. The guy coughed and spluttered and shook his head as if in a daze, but he didn’t recover consciousness.
Ben was worried about him. His hands were almost blue with the cold and they seemed rigid,
despite his rubbing them. His friend’s face was completely white and colourless. But he couldn’t spend too much time at present on Toni. Now it was time to try and rescue Carlos.
Hampered by Toni’s body and his own fading strength, he struggled for a further hour to try and get the rope with Carlos’ body on it into the chimney, but in that time he scarcely moved it more than a foot. It felt like lead to his weakened muscles. In fact he wondered whether Carlos or the rope had got caught in a crevice or round a flake of rock. He couldn’t even see the man.
Panic hovered darkly at the back of his mind. Ben shrank from climbing out of the chimney again to check what was wrong. He doubted whether he would be able to do anything to free the body and he wasn’t sure whether he would have enough strength to climb back up a second time. Furthermore it was now so dark that he might not be able to see enough detail to be of any help. Carlos must still be the best part of twenty feet down the rope. Ben couldn’t do anything more for him without a long rest. Almost crying from frustration, he lapsed into a period of black despair. It seemed as though his mind gradually faded into a state of half-waking. He thought he had read somewhere that this was one of the effects of exposure but he seemed unable to do anything about it.
The Mafia Emblem Page 2
