They were too scared to look down and shouted to Baba for help. Herbert was gradually slipping from his precarious perch where loose dirt and slippery moss covered the rock. Any movement would have pushed down earth and rocks into the face of Vivienne, who was clinging desperately to a depression in the rock and pressing her body to the smooth surface, unable to move. Anita was below her, trying to hold steady.
The others had returned to the villa and were surprised that Baba's group had not returned after two hours. Meanwhile Baba had climbed up a higher cliff and was clapping his hands loudly to attract attention. Since he was at least a mile from the house, no one there heard him. But an Italian priest walking past saw him and knew where Baba was staying. He ran to the house and told the Italian boy Tino.
Tino ran to Baba and understood his hand signs to bring ropes. He rushed back to the kitchen and told Kaka, Adi Jr. and Pendu, who were cooking the evening meal. Leaving the pots on the stove, they immediately left with a rope.
By this time, Vivienne was terrified and shouting at the top of her lungs, "BABA! BABA!" She could not let go, as she would fall 15 to 20 feet onto Anita and then roll down another 300 feet to the sea. Also growing anxious, Herbert tried to reassure her that help was coming and to hold on. Anita was more perplexed than afraid and wondered how on earth this could have happened on a walk with Baba. The line, "A coward dies a thousand deaths, a hero only once," kept going through her mind.
Pendu then appeared at the top of the cliffs with a rope. He tied the rope to a tree. Baba began climbing down it and Pendu followed him, dropping pebbles on Baba as they descended. The rope wasn't long enough to reach those stranded, so Pendu went farther down and extended his arm to pull Herbert and Vivienne up. Pendu then slid further down the side of the cliff and told Anita to grab his leg, which she did, and she too was rescued. Anita recounted:
What was amazing was Baba's tremendous beauty. It was as if I saw for the first time what beauty was. As I was being pulled up, Baba looked at me, and there — against the sea, against the cliffs, against the sky — was Baba, like a tremendous Byzantine figure and with the most beautiful smile. And at that moment, I thought, "Never again will I see beauty like this."
Baba scolded the group, "Again you broke my order. I told you all to be with me, why did you leave?"
They said Tod had told them to, and Baba retorted, "If Tod is your Master then go and follow him. Why are you staying with me? Didn't I tell you to keep close. Why didn't you ask me if you could leave? When I give you an order you must always obey it."