d thus walk straight back upon
the spears of those who came after. No! I must halt until it became
clear again; and, at any rate, if I were delayed, the same would hold
good of my pursuers, unless, indeed, the northern side of the mountains
remained clear. This would give them such a long start that they would
soon come up with me, in which case--goodnight!

It was time I decided to halt, _Nkose_. A puff of cold air coming
_upward_ warned me to pause in the act of making a step. The swirl and
movement of the air lightened the thickness a little. And lo! I was
standing on the very brink of a black chasm.

Its depth I could not estimate, but it looked bad. I was not
unacquainted with these mountains, and I knew there were clefts which
seemed to go down into the very heart of the world. But I saw something
else. Away on the one hand rose a great rock, and around it, along the
lip of the chasm, a narrow path seemed to run.

Now a new thought struck me. This might lead to one of the cave
dwellings of those old tribes who long ages ago had inhabited those
mountains. If so, no better hiding-place could I find, and immediately
I started to make my way along the ledge path.

_Whau, Nkose_, I like not to recall that dread journey. That way, at
first only broad enough for one man to travel, soon narrowed until a
monkey could hardly have found foothold on it. Before me a great tongue
of slippery rock face against which, and with arms extended, I had to
flatten myself; behind, the unknown depths of that awful chasm. It
seemed as though ghosts and witches sung in my ears in the dank breaths
of the white mist, as though in the fitful puffs of the night wind hands
were stretched forth to claw me down. Then, fortunately, the projecting
rock tongue ended, and lo! I had gained a flat surface about twice the
length of a man. This sloped inward, a narrowing tunnel, with a strange
sudden twist just before it ended; and now my heart leaped within me,
for no better hiding-place could I have lighted upon. Chilled, and wet,
and weary, I crept into the narrowest end of the hole, and hardly had I
lain me down than I fell into a deep, sound slumber.

When I awoke, it seemed that dawn had already begun to lighten the
world, for I could make out the rock-walls of my sleeping place. Well,
I would see, at any rate, what sort of hiding this place promised to
afford. I crept to where the cave widened sufficiently to allow me to