t a judicious man, Lorimer," he said. "I'm infinitely obliged
to you, but no one would have blamed you for letting go."

"We'll let that pass," I answered shortly. "I'm glad I did not. We are in
an awkward place, and the first thing is to decide how to get out of it."

There was a wry smile on Ormond's face when he spoke again: "It's
certainly a perilous position, and a somewhat unusual one. You and I--of
all men--to be hung up here together on the brink of eternity. Still I, at
least, am doubtful whether I'll ever get out again; there's something
badly broken inside of me."

The hot blood surged to my forehead, for I understood what he meant, but
that was a side issue, and, answering nothing, I scanned the slope for
some way of ascent. There was none, and nothing without wings could have
gained the valley. Ormond, too, realized this.

"All we can do, Lorimer," he said, "is to wait until our friends assist
us. In the meantime you might fire your rifle to suggest that they
hurry!"

He spoke very thickly. I scraped the snow from the slung weapon's muzzle,
for this will sometimes burst a gun, and then a red flash answered the
ringing report from the opposite slope, and presently a cry reached us
from the foremost of the clambering figures. "Hold on! We're coming to get
you out!" it said.

Now most luckily we had brought several stout hide ropes with us, which
was a rather unusual procedure. The British Columbian mountaineer will
carry a flour bag over moraine and glacier trusting only to the creeper
spikes on his heels, and in objecting to the extra weight our guide said
derisively: "We've quite enough to pack already, and I guess you don't
want to dress us up with a green veil, a crooked club with a spike in the
end of it, and fathoms of spun hemp, like them tourist fellows bring out
to sit in the woods with."

Nevertheless, I insisted, and now we were thankful for the coupled
lariats. They could not lower them directly toward me because of a tree,
and when the end lay resting on the snow several yards away I braced
myself to attempt the risky traverse. The slope was pitched as steeply as
the average roof, and there was ice beneath the frost-dried powder that
slid along it. Leaving the rifle behind, I drove the long blade of my
knife deep down for a hand-hold before the first move.

"Lie flat and wriggle!" called a man above. "Jam the steel into the hard
cake beneath!" and with the cold sweat oozing from my hair I