Checking the pulse in both Matt’s feet, she nodded to Ryan. ‘His circulation is good in both legs.’

‘Right. Lex, take this for me.’ Ryan passed his radio to Lexi, freeing up his hands. Then he turned back to the boy. ‘Matt, you’ve broken both your legs. I’m going to put a splint on them because that will reduce the bleeding and it will help the pain.’ He looked towards Lexi. ‘Logan should be up there by now. Make contact and tell Nick I need a towel.’

A towel? Glancing at the water around them, Jenna wondered if he’d gone mad, and then reminded himself that everything he’d done so far had been spot-on.

Worried that all this was too much for Lexi, Jenna was about to repeat the instructions but Lexi was already working the radio. Doing everything she’d been asked to do, she talked to Nick and relayed messages back and forth, copying the radio style she’d heard Ryan use.

‘Dr McNeil is there. He wants to know what you need.’

‘I’ll have a Sager splint, if he has one, otherwise any traction splint. And oxygen. And ask Nick if we have an ETA on the helicopter.’

‘Sager?’ Jenna handed him a Venflon and Ryan slid the cannula into the vein in Matt’s arm as smoothly as if he was working in a state-of-the-art emergency unit, not a chasm in the rocks.

‘It’s an American splint. I prefer it.’

‘They’re lowering it down now. I’ll get it.’ One eye on the waves, Lexi picked her way across the slippery rocks like a tightrope walker and reached for the rucksack that had been lowered on the end of a rope.

Watching the boiling cauldron of water lapping angrily at her daughter’s ankles, Jenna prayed that she wouldn’t slip. Pride swelled inside her and she blinked rapidly, forcing herself to concentrate on her part of the rescue. ‘Is it possible to apply a splint in these conditions with just the two of us?’

‘I can do it in two and a half minutes, and it will make it easier to evacuate him by helicopter.’ Ryan took the rucksack Lexi handed him and opened it. Using the towel, he dried Matt’s legs and then opened the bag containing the splint. In a few swift movements he’d removed, unfolded and assembled the splint. ‘OK, that’s ready.’ He positioned it between Matt’s legs, explaining what he was doing.

Hearing the sound of a helicopter overhead, Jenna looked up, relief providing a much-needed flood of warmth through her body. ‘Oh, thank goodness—they’re here.’