on this side of the hole, and so she
fell. It was a good end for her, the vicious old cow!" he added, with a
touch of satisfaction.

"It was very near being a bad end for us," answered Leonard, "but we
have managed to come out of it alive somehow. Not for all the rubies in
the world would I cross that place again."

"Nor I, Baas. _Wow!_ it was awful. Now my stomach went through my head,
and now my head went through my stomach, and the air was red and green
and blue, and devils shouted at me out of it. Yes, and when I came to
the hole, there I saw the Water-Dweller all fashioned in fire waiting
with an open mouth to eat me. It was the drink that made me think of
these things, Baas, and that is why I have sworn to touch it no
more. Yes, I swore it as I flew through the air and saw the flaming
Water-Dweller beneath me. And now, Baas, I am a little rested, so let us
try and wake up the Shepherdess, and get us gone."

"Yes," said Leonard, "though I am sure I do not know where we are to go
to. It can't be far, for I am nearly spent."

Then crawling to where Juanna lay wrapped in her cloak, Otter poured
some of the native spirit down her throat while Leonard rubbed her
hands. Presently this treatment produced its effect, for she sat up with
a start, and seeing the ice before her, began to shriek, saying, "Take
me away; I can't do it, Leonard, I can't indeed."

"All right, dear," he answered, "you have done it. We are over."

"Oh!" she said, "I _am_ thankful. But where is Soa? I thought that I
heard her throw herself down behind us."

"Soa is dead," he answered. "She fell down the gulf and nearly pulled
us with her. I will tell you all about it afterwards; you are not fit to
hear it now. Come, dear, let us be going out of this accursed place."

Juanna staggered to her feet.

"I am so stiff and sore that I can hardly stand," she said, "but,
Leonard, what is the matter with you? You are covered with blood."

"I will tell you afterwards," he replied again.

Then Otter collected their baggage, which consisted chiefly of the hide
line and the spear, and they crawled forward up the snow-slope. Some
twenty or thirty yards ahead of them, and almost side by side, lay the
two glacier stones on which they had passed the bridge, and near them
those which Otter had despatched as pioneers on the previous morning.
They looked at them wondering. Who could have believed that these inert
things, not an hour before, had been speeding