adlong, and pull Wake out of his
hold to the bergschrund far below. I slipped more than once, but always
by a miracle recovered myself. To make things worse, Wake was tiring. I
could feel him drag on the rope, and his movements had not the
precision they had had in the morning. He was the mountaineer, and I
the novice. If he gave out, we should never reach the valley.

The fellow was clear grit all through. When we reached the foot of the
tooth and sat huddled up with our faces away from the wind, I saw that
he was on the edge of fainting. What that effort Must have cost him in
the way of resolution you may guess, but he did not fail till the worst
was past. His lips were colourless, and he was choking with the nausea
of fatigue. I found a flask of brandy in his pocket, and a mouthful
revived him.

'I'm all out,' he said. 'The road's easier now, and I can direct YOU
about the rest ... You'd better leave me. I'll only be a drag. I'll
come on when I feel better.'

'No, you don't, you old fool. You've got me over that infernal iceberg,
and I'm going to see you home.'

I rubbed his arms and legs and made him swallow some chocolate. But
when he got on his feet he was as doddery as an old man. Happily we had
an easy course down a snow gradient, which we glissaded in very
unorthodox style. The swift motion freshened him up a little, and he
was able to put on the brake with his axe to prevent us cascading into
the bergschrund. We crossed it by a snow bridge, and started out on the
seracs of the Schwarzstein glacier.

I am no mountaineer--not of the snow and ice kind, anyway--but I have a
big share of physical strength and I wanted it all now. For those
seracs were an invention of the devil. To traverse that labyrinth in a
blinding snowstorm, with a fainting companion who was too weak to jump
the narrowest crevasse, and who hung on the rope like lead when there
was occasion to use it, was more than I could manage. Besides, every
step that brought us nearer to the valley now increased my eagerness to
hurry, and wandering in that maze of clotted ice was like the nightmare
when you stand on the rails with the express coming and are too weak to
climb on the platform. As soon as possible I left the glacier for the
hillside, and though that was laborious enough in all conscience, yet
it enabled me to steer a straight course. Wake never spoke a word. When
I looked at him his face was ashen under a gale which should have made
his