xe stood now paralysed with horror, and it was not until Dale had
shaken him twice that his fixed, wild manner began to pass off.

"Stop here," cried Dale: "you are too much unnerved to come."

"Where--where are you going?" cried the lad; and before an answer could
be given, he cried: "Yes; yes, go on: I'm ready."

"I tell you that you are too much unnerved to venture!" cried Dale
angrily. "Am I to lose you both?"

He turned and hurried out of sight; but he had not gone fifty yards
along the narrow ledge into the gloomy crack before he heard a hoarse
sound, and turning sharply back, there was Saxe close behind.

"Don't send me back," cried the lad: "I can't stand here doing nothing.
I must come and help."

"Come, then!" shouted Dale, his voice sounding smothered and weak in the
echoing rush of the waters, which glided in at the funnel-like opening
smooth and glassy, now leaped forward and roared as they careered madly
along, leaping up and licking at the rugged but smoothly polished walls,
charging into cracks and crevices, and falling back broken up into foam,
and ever forced onward at a tremendous rate by the mass of water behind.

The place itself would in bright sunshine have made the stoutest-hearted
pause and draw breath before adventuring its passage; but seen in the
weird subdued light which came down filtered through the trees which
overhung the chasm a thousand feet above, it seemed terrible. For only
at intervals could a glimpse of the sky be seen, while as they
penetrated farther, the walls, which almost exactly matched in curve,
angle and depression, came nearer together, and the place darkened.

"Take care--take care!" Dale cried from time to time, as he found
portions of the ledge narrower and more difficult; but Saxe did not
speak, only crept on, with his left hand grasping every inequality of
the rock, and, like his leader, glancing down into the mad race of
foaming water, in the hope of catching sight of Melchior's upturned face
and outstretched hands.

It never occurred to him that they could render no help, even if they
did catch sight of their unfortunate companion; for they were never less
than twenty feet above the narrow hissing and roaring stream, and there
was not a spot where a rock could be grasped: everything was worn too
smooth by the constant passage of the water, which doubtless carried
with it stones from the lake as well as those ever loosened by frost and
crumbling down fro