g to start. Grip fast with your
right hand, and see that you do not leave go of the edge of the stone,
or we shall both slip off it."

"Oh! take me with you, Shepherdess, take me with you, and I will be
wicked no more, but serve you as of old," shrilled the voice of Soa in
so despairing a cry that the rocks rang.

"Hold fast," said Leonard through his set teeth, as, disengaging his
right hand from about Juanna's waist, he seized the handle of the spear
and pressed its broad blade against a knob of rock behind them. Now the
stone, that was balanced on the very verge of the declivity, trembled
beneath them, and now, slowly and majestically as a vessel starting from
her slips when the launching cord is severed, it began to move down the
icy way.

For the first second it scarcely seemed to stir, then the motion grew
palpable, and at that instant Leonard heard a noise behind him and felt
his left foot clasped by a human hand. There was a jerk that nearly
dragged them off their sledge, but he held fast to the front edge of
the stone, and though he could still feel the hand upon his ankle, the
strain became almost imperceptible.

CHAPTER XXXIX

THE PASSING OF THE BRIDGE

Lifting his head very cautiously, Leonard looked over his shoulder and
the mystery was explained. In her madness and the fury of her love for
the mistress whom she had outraged and betrayed, Soa had striven to
throw herself upon the stone with them so soon as she saw it commence
to move. She was too late, and feeling herself slipping forward, she
grasped despairingly at the first thing that came to her hand, which
chanced to be Leonard's ankle. Now she must accompany them upon their
awesome journey; only, while they rode upon the stone, she was dragged
after them upon her breast.

A flash of pity passed through Leonard's brain as he realised her
fearful plight. Then for a while he forgot all about her, since his
attention was amply occupied with his own and Juanna's peril. Now they
were rushing down the long slope with an ever-increasing velocity, and
now they breasted the first rise, during the last ten yards of which,
as in the case of Otter, the pace of the stone slowed down so much in
proportion to the progressive exhaustion of its momentum, that Leonard
thought they were coming to a standstill. Then it was that he kicked
out viciously, striving to free himself from the weight of Soa, which
threatened to bring them to a common ruin. But she cl