Page 46 of God’s Country

“Of course.”

“Even if something went wrong up here?”

She studied me, and I hoped she got my message.

“Yes,” she said.

“All right then.”

I took the rest of the rope and walked back to the pine, where I looped it once around the trunk. Combined, the two coils created a rope about one hundred feet in length. I was twenty feet back from the cliff edge. I’d judged Devil’s Bottom to be between sixty and seventy feet high. If my calculations were correct, I believed I’d have enough rope for my real Plan B.

“Okay, look at me and kneel at the edge,” I instructed Leticia.

When she’d done that, I sat down facing her and the cliff where the Kennedy brothers stood watching the procedure. I braced my feet against the tree to anchor myself, took a firm hold of the rope, and said, “Now ease yourself over. I’ve got you, I swear.”

Without any hesitation, the young woman slipped from her perch. Her sudden weight pulled on the rope, but the bulk of the pressure was on the tree trunk. I began to let the rope slide slowly through my hands. I should have worn gloves, but I hadn’t seen any in the mess of the tents. I watched Leticia disappear over the edge of the cliff.

“You okay?” I called out.

“Ten-four,” she replied.

I smiled. I really liked this kid.

I eased her down. I’d given her about twenty feet of rope when she called up, “I need to go left.”

“How far?” I called out.

“Four feet.”

“Hey, you two, ease the rope four feet to Leticia’s left.”

Stan crouched and grabbed the taut rope, but Ollie, when he tried to bend over, just gave a howl of pain.

“I got it,” Stan called out.

“Careful!” I hollered. “Don’t let the rock edge cut into the rope!”

“I’m trying. Christ, give me a hand,” he said to Ollie.

The big man crouched down slowly behind his brother and took hold of the rope.

“Lift!” Stan said.

He and Ollie together reoriented the line, Ollie screaming in pain most of the time.

“That’s good!” Leticia called. “I’m there!”

The brothers released their hold, knelt at the cliff’s edge, and leaned over to eye the young woman and the pack they’d been so desperate to find.

“She’s got it!” Stan cried. “We have to pull her up!”

But I didn’t pull. Instead, I let the rope slide rapidly through my hands, burning my palms as it did.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell!” Stan hollered.

The rope continued to slide until it was almost at an end, then I felt the pressure let up. I knew she’d reached the bottom.

As loud as I could, I yelled, “Run, Leticia!”