but by that time the folks up on top
had let down some ropes and we soon got everybody up all right."

"Elijah," said Mr. Masters reproachfully, "why don't you go into the
details? You know that when Mr. Douglas and I climbed down on the ropes,
you were almost over the edge with Van Shaw's body."

"Well, that's the most slippery piece of rock I ever felt," said
Clifford, and again he failed to note a movement on the part of Miss
Gray. When Masters had said that Clifford had almost gone over the edge
of the ledge with Van Shaw's body, she had put out the hand nearest
Clifford, as if to hold him back.

"Yes," said Clifford, "that ledge is smooth and no mistake. If any more
folks are going to fall over onto it, I think the Commissioners in
Oraibi ought to drive some nails into it, or else build a neat little
concrete wall around it. There were times while I was down there
thinking it over, that I would have given considerable for a good, high
English garden wall on the other side of Van Shaw's body and me. A
lantern is a poor thing to brace your feet on. It lacks staying powers."

"Gentlemen," said Masters, turning to the group around the fire, "we
have had a most wonderful deliverance from a tragedy and it is due to
the heroism of two of the bravest men that ever lived. Elijah, don't
interrupt me. The only way we can express our thanks is to go to the
Heavenly Father with them," and without a moment's pause as if it were
the most natural thing in the world, as it was with him, Masters broke
into a prayer of thanksgiving so tender and eloquent that Helen, whose
cot had been placed in one of the tents with its front opening near the
fire where she could hear everything, bent her head over on her arms and
cried.

She had been under a great nervous tension all day. And this last scene,
coming as a most astonishing climax to it all, affected her quick
imagination. Another thing had added to all the rest, at the memory of
which she blushed as she hid her face in her hands during the quiet that
followed that prayer by Masters.

When the three cots, her own, Bauer's and Van Shaw's, had been brought
down the trail, at one place in a turn of the passage, while the bearers
had to set the cots down to make some changes in the way of carrying
them, her cot had stood a moment by the side of Van Shaw's. And in that
moment, in the pale darkness, softened by the light of two or three
lanterns, she had felt her hand seized. She almos