The Strength of the Rope by Bernard Capes
The narrator accompanies the imperturbably scientific Regius Professor to dangerous sea-cliffs, despite public warnings that recent weather has made them liable to collapse. While the Professor enters a cave to inspect its formation, the narrator waits in terror amid falling debris and ominous rustlings. The Professor emerges just before his chosen cave is sealed by a collapse, treating his narrow escape with calm amusement. Asked whether he has ever known fear, the Professor recounts an earlier experience from his days as Science Demonstrator at the Park Lane Polytechnic. During a solitary winter tramp through a bleak Shropshire valley, he passes a silent hamlet, a school alive with children’s singing, and the burned-out shell of an abandoned factory. Exploring the factory, he enters its well-house and leans over a deep well, holding the hanging end of its rope for support. The rusty windlass suddenly turns, leaving him suspended over the pit as it slowly unwinds the rope. He struggles continually to climb upward as the rope pays out beneath him, but fatigue increases and the windlass begins to turn faster. He considers descending with the rope and climbing back once it is fully released, until he remembers that a section of the rope has been scorched by the old fire and must eventually snap under his weight. Confronted with this certainty, he experiences genuine fear, yet retains enough will to continue climbing and finally scream for help. No one answers. When the burnt portion approaches the windlass, he gives up and sinks, only to find his feet resting on something solid. The well has been nearly filled with rubbish thrown in by generations of schoolchildren. The rope piles beneath him, supporting his weight; when it snaps, he uses its ends to make a loop over the windlass yoke and climbs out. Discovering the source of his rescue, he returns to the school and gives the mistress his pamphlet on the Reef-building Serpule for inclusion in the curriculum.
By Bernard Capes · First published 1916 · Genre: Gothic Horror, Suspense, Psychological Horror · 4,724 words
First lines
Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit.
There were notices, of varying dates, posted in prominent places about the cliffs to warn the public not to go near them-unless, indeed, it were to read the notices themselves, which were printed in a very unobtrusive type. Of late, however, this Dogberrian _caveat_ had been supplemented by a statement in the local gazette that the cliffs, owing to the recent rains succeeding prolonged frost, were in so ill a constitution that to approach them at all, even to decipher the warnings not to, was-well, to take your life out of the municipal into your own hands.
Similar titles
- The Beetle Hunter by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Terror Of Blue John Gap by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Of The Living Spectre by Thomas A. Janvier
- The Bird by Thomas Burke
- A Ghost Child by Bernard Capes
- A Challenge by Ambrose Bierce
Genres
- Gothic Horror — The story builds dread through unstable cliffs, black caves, an abandoned factory, a deep well, decay, darkness, isolation, and the sustained suggestion of imminent death.
- Suspense — Its central well episode depends on escalating physical danger: the protagonist is slowly lowered toward an unknown depth while the burned section of rope approaches.
- Psychological Horror — The narrative closely examines terror, mental endurance, bodily panic, and the conflict between rational self-command and the overwhelming fear of death.
- Survival Fiction — The main embedded narrative concerns an improvised struggle to survive entrapment in a ruined well through endurance, observation, and practical ingenuity.
Tags
Victorian gothic fiction · psychological horror · suspense story · frame narrative · scientific rationalism · fear and self-control · survival against death · industrial ruin · abandoned factory · deep well · rope and windlass · near-fatal accident
What this Textopian page supports
The Strength of the Rope is listed on Textopian as a short story by Bernard Capes, dated 1916 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Bernard Capes
- Date: 1916 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Gothic Horror, Suspense, Psychological Horror, Survival Fiction, Adventure Fiction
- Length: 4,724 words
- Structure: 1 section, 66 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Strength of the Rope by Bernard Capes
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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