seemed to reach a rock
which alone saved me from disappearing for ever. Now I felt the snow
closing above me and with it came darkness and a sense of suffocation.
So soft was the drift, however, that before I was overcome I contrived
with my arms to thrust away the powdery dust from about my head, thus
forming a little hollow into which air filtered slowly. Getting my hands
upon the stone, I strove to rise, but could not, the weight upon me was
too great.

Then I abandoned hope and prepared to die. The process proved not
altogether unpleasant. I did not see visions from my past life as
drowning men are supposed to do, but--and this shows how strong was her
empire over me--my mind flew back to Ayesha. I seemed to behold her and
a man at her side, standing over me in some dark, rocky gulf. She was
wrapped in a long travelling cloak, and her lovely eyes were wild with
fear. I rose to salute her, and make report, but she cried in a fierce,
concentrated voice--"What evil thing has happened here? Thou livest;
then where is my lord Leo? Speak, man, and say where thou hast hid my
lord--or die."

The vision was extraordinarily real and vivid, I remember, and,
considered in connection with a certain subsequent event, in all ways
most remarkable, but it passed as swiftly as it came.

Then my senses left me.

I saw a light again. I heard a voice, that of Leo. "Horace," he cried,
"Horace, hold fast to the stock of the rifle." Something was thrust
against my outstretched hand. I gripped it despairingly, and there came
a strain. It was useless, I did not move. Then, bethinking me, I drew
up my legs and by chance or the mercy of Heaven, I know not, got my
feet against a ridge of the rock on which I was lying. Again I felt the
strain, and thrust with all my might. Of a sudden the snow gave, and out
of that hole I shot like a fox from its earth.

I struck something. It was Leo straining at the gun, and I knocked him
backwards. Then down the steep slope we rolled, landing at length upon
the very edge of the precipice. I sat up, drawing in the air with great
gasps, and oh! how sweet it was. My eyes fell upon my hand, and I saw
that the veins stood out on the back of it, black as ink and large as
cords. Clearly I must have been near my end.

"How long was I in there?" I gasped to Leo, who sat at my side, wiping
off the sweat that ran from his face in streams.

"Don't know. Nearly twenty minutes, I should think."

"Twenty minutes!