lowed on the first attempt; the other,
which we now adopted, by the "Corridor." This is a steep furrow, crossed
by an ice precipice with a great crevasse near its foot, which leads
upward from the left-hand border of the Grand Plateau to a snowy saddle
between the Mont Maudit and a precipitous out-cropping of rock called
the Mur de la Cote. A faint glimmer of approaching dawn now lay on part
of the rim of mountains surrounding us.

When we reached the foot of the Corridor the lights of the other party
were not visible. But here step-cutting became necessary, and this
delayed us so much that presently I caught dancing gleams from the
pursuing lanterns moving rapidly at the bottom of the bowl of night out
of which we were climbing. They were fast gaining upon us.

"We must hurry, Couttet!"

"Yes, but no man goes quick here who does not go for the last time."

In fact, our position had an appearance of peril. We were part way up
the frozen precipice that cuts across the Corridor, and were balancing
ourselves on an acute wedge of ice which stood off several feet in front
of the precipice, being separated from it by a deep cleft. The outer
side of this wedge, whose edge we were traversing lengthwise, pitched
down into the darkness and ended, I believe, in a crevasse. Presently we
reached a place where the precipice overhung our precarious footway, and
an inverted forest of icicles depended above us.

"Make as little noise as possible, and step gently," said Couttet.

This is a familiar precaution in the High Alps, where the vibrations of
sound sometimes act the part of the trigger of a gun and let loose
terrific energies ready poised for action. The clinking of particles of
ice that shot from our feet into the depths distracted attention from
the beautiful play of the light of the lanterns on some of the hanging
masses.

At last we attained a point where it was possible, by swinging round a
somewhat awkward corner, to get upon the roof of the precipice. This we
found so steep that occasional steps had also to be cut there.

The lights of the pursuers had approached the foot of the wall, and
though now invisible, we knew the party was ascending close behind,
taking advantage of the steps we had made. This spurred us on, although
I was beginning to suffer some inconvenience from the rarity of the air,
and had to stop to breathe much oftener than I liked. In truth, the
spurt we had made, beginning at the Grands Montees,