-edge for their bed, and a long, wild night before
them. Cowardice does not consist in simple fear. It consists in the
fear of trifles; in unreasonable fear, and in such fear as incapacitates
a man for action. The situation of our explorers was not one of slight
danger. They had the best of reason for anxiety, because they knew not
whether escape, even in daylight, were possible. As to incapacity for
action, the best proof that fear had not brought them to that condition
lay in the fact, that they set about preparations for spending the night
with a degree of vigour amounting almost to cheerfulness.

After the most careful survey, only one spot was found wider than the
rest of the ledge, and it was not more than four feet wide, the
difference being caused by a slight hollow under the rock, which thus
might overhang them--one of them at least--and form a sensation of
canopy. At its best, a bed only four feet wide is esteemed narrow
enough for one, and quite inadequate for two, but when it is considered
that the bed now selected was of hard granite, rather round-backed than
flat, with a sheer precipice descending a thousand feet, more or less,
on one side of it, and a slope in that direction, there will be no
difficulty in conceiving something of the state of mind in which Lewis
Stoutley and Baptist Le Croix lay down to repose till morning in wet
garments, with the thermometer somewhere between thirty-two and zero,
Fahrenheit.

To prevent their rolling off the ledge when asleep, they built on the
edge of the cliff a wall of the largest loose stones they could find.
It was but an imaginary protection at best, for the slightest push sent
some of the stones toppling over, and it necessarily curtailed the
available space. No provisions, save one small piece of bread, had been
brought, as they had intended returning to their cave to feast
luxuriously. Having eaten the bread, they prepared to lie down.

It was agreed that only one at a time should sleep; the other was to
remain awake, to prevent the sleeper from inadvertently moving. It was
also arranged, that he whose turn it was to sleep should lie on the
inner side. But here arose a difference. Le Croix insisted that Lewis
should have the first sleep. Lewis, on the other hand, declared that he
was not sleepy; that the attempt to sleep would only waste the time of
both, and that therefore Le Croix should have the first.

The contention was pretty sharp for a ti