ess. If I returned without
even having scaled the mountain, my mission would be a complete
failure, without speaking of the torture to my curiosity. And when I
stood again before Mr. Ward, shamed and confused, I should cut but a
sorry figure.

We opened our knapsacks and lunched moderately on bread and cold
meat. Our repast finished, in less than half an hour, Mr. Smith
sprang up eager to push forward once more. James Bruck took the lead;
and we had only to follow him as best we could.

We advanced slowly. Our guides did not attempt to conceal their doubt
and hesitation. Soon Horn left us and went far ahead to spy out which
road promised most chance of success.

Twenty minutes later he returned and led us onward toward the
northwest. It was on this side that the Black Dome rose at a distance
of three or four miles. Our path was still difficult and painful,
amid the sliding stones, held in place only occasionally by wiry
bushes. At length after a weary struggle, we gained some two
hundred feet further upward and found ourselves facing a great gash,
which, broke the earth at this spot. Here and there were scattered
roots recently uptorn, branches broken off, huge stones reduced to
powder, as if an avalanche had rushed down this flank of the mountain.

"That must be the path taken by the huge block which broke away
from the Great Eyrie," commented James Bruck.

"No doubt," answered Mr. Smith, "and I think we had better follow the
road that it has made for us."

It was indeed this gash that Harry Horn had selected for our ascent.
Our feet found lodgment in the firmer earth which had resisted the
passage of the monster rock. Our task thus became much easier, and
our progress was in a straight line upward, so that toward half past
eleven we reached the upper border of the "slide."

Before us, less than a hundred feet away, but towering a hundred feet
straight upwards in the air rose the rocky wall which formed the
final crest, the last defence of the Great Eyrie.

From this side, the summit of the wall showed capriciously irregular,
rising in rude towers and jagged needles. At one point the outline
appeared to be an enormous eagle silhouetted against the sky, just
ready to take flight. Upon this side, at least, the precipice was
insurmountable.

"Rest a minute," said Mr. Smith, "and we will see if it is possible
to make our way around the base of this cliff."

"At any rate," said Harry Horn, "the great block must