“Hold tight Jonas, I’ve got a plan,” Beck shouted at the crevasse where Jonas hung suspended beneath the lip.
Beck dug his heels even deeper into the snow and slowly reached to the rope that was coiled around his chest and removed it. The rope to Jonas was still drum tight from Beck’s waist to Jonas down in the crevasse, but the rest of the coil Beck carefully unravelled from his body.
Beck was panting hard and he knew that both of them were on borrowed time.
He uncoiled the last of the rope and quickly started to tie small loops in the rope every foot or so. He reckoned he had about eight metres of rope but by the time had tied a few loops into it the rope was only about four metres long. Just enough to reach Jonas, Beck calculated.
Both boys were struggling now to breath, Jonas was having the air squeezed from his lungs hanging in the rope tied around his waist and Beck’s rope dug agonisingly into his hips like a cheese wire.
Beck then coiled the rope and prepared to throw it towards the crevasse, but doing so in such an awkward seated position whilst being half pulled into crevasse himself wasn’t easy work.
He would have to throw it at least four metres and bang on target if Jonas stood any chance of reaching it.
“This is going to be tough, Jonas, but you can do it, I know you can.” Beck shouted. “I’m going to throw some extra rope. You have got to catch it then use all your strength, leg and arms to haul and climb your way up to the lip. Okay, my friend?” Beck tried to sound as calm and reassuring as he could, but he knew they would only get one shot at this before either he was dragged into the crevasse as well or Jonas became too weak to haul himself up.Beck took a deep breath, took aim and there the coil at the empty crevasse.
The rope uncoiled and flew through the air and landed just to the left of where Jonas was hanging.
Jonas bit his lip, and launched himself to the right to grab the end of it as it flicked down against the icy wall of the crevasse.
“Got it!” Jonas shouted. And with superhuman strength he placed his hand through the first loop in the rope, dug his feet against the ice and hauled himself up. With a grunt of effort, Jonas managed to get his elbow over the lip and then kick and wriggle his chest up and over as well. Then the rest of his body and he lay on the edge of the snow crevasse heaving and spluttering for air. He was out.
“Oof.” He stood slowly and flexed his arms. “And thank you.”
“Any time! Good strength Jonas. I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to be able to hold you.”
“Let’s not have to repeat that again, Beck.” Jonas added with a smile. “Look, my legs are shaking like leaves. That’s not good for you, I am sure.” Beck smiled back and started to recoil the rope around his shoulders.
Beck pulled his gloves back on and squinted down at the crevasse, noting its direction while he shook some feeling back into his hands. Blood returned to his extremities feeling like someone was pouring hot metal down his bones. “Okay, so if we go this way, we’ll miss it. Now, let’s get off this ice.”
“Very glad to,” Jonas assured him. “Very glad to.”
And so they pressed on, testing, probing with each step.
Ironic, Beck thought, that Kolberg had wanted to dump them into the glacier in the first place. They could still do his work for him, if they weren’t careful. Vanish into a crack and not be seen again for a hundred years…
And round about now, he thought with a pang, back in England, Al was probably waking up to the news that his nephew had gone missing. For all Al knew, Beck really was at the bottom of a glacier. It made as much sense as any other theory.
I’m here, Al, he thought as hard as he could. Alive and well and on my way…