"Halloa! Below!"
From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, raising
his eyes, saw my figure high above him.
"Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?"
He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without
pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just then
there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing
into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused me to start
back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapor as rose
to my height from this rapid train had passed me and was skimming away
over the landscape, I looked down again, and saw him refurling the flag
he had shown while the train went by.
I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to regard
me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up flag towards
a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards distant. I called
down to him, "All right!" and made for that point. There, by dint of
looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag descending path
notched out; which I followed.
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