how it was that they did not slide back to the bottom
of the slope, there to remain till they perished, for without ropes
and proper implements no human being could scale it. Then he saw that a
chance had befallen them, which in after-days he was wont to attribute
to the direct intervention of Providence.

It will be remembered that when they started, Leonard had pushed the
rock off with a spear which Olfan had given them. This spear he drew in
again as they began to move, placing it between his chest and the stone,
for he thought that it might be of service to him should they succeed
in crossing the gulf. When they were jerked from the sledge, and left to
slide along the ice on the further side of the gap, in obedience to
the impetus given to them by the frightful speed at which they were
travelling, the spear, obeying the same laws of motion, accompanied
them, but, being of a less specific gravity, lagged behind in the race,
just as the stone, which was heaviest, outstripped them.

As it happened, near the top of the rise there was a fissure in the
ice, and in this fissure the weapon had become fixed, its weighted blade
causing it to assume an upright position. When the senseless bodies of
Leonard and Juanna had slid as far up the slope as the unexpended energy
of their impetus would allow, naturally enough they began to move back
again in accordance with the laws of gravity. Then it was, as luck would
have it, that the spear, fixed in the crevice of the ice, saved them
from destruction; for it chanced that the descent of their two forms,
passing on either side of it, was checked by the handle of the weapon,
which caught the hide rope whereby they were bound together.

All of this Leonard took in by degrees; also he discovered that Juanna
was either dead or senseless, at the time he could not tell which.

"What are you going to do?" he asked of Otter, who by now was on the
verge of the ice fifteen feet above them.

"Cut steps and pull you up, Baas," answered the dwarf cheerfully.

"It will not be easy," said Leonard, glancing over his shoulder at the
long slope beneath, "and if we slip or the rope breaks----"

"Do not talk of slipping, Baas," replied Otter, as he began to hack at
the ice with the priest's heavy knife, "and as for the rope, if it was
strong enough for the Water-Dweller to drag me round the pool by, it is
strong enough to hold you two, although it has seen some wear. I only
wish I had such anothe