e he prepared to receive Mildmay, and gave him
the word to drop. It came none too soon, for the lieutenant's quivering
muscles were already failing him, his nerveless fingers were already
relaxing their grasp, and he felt that he must let go, whether or not,
in another moment. At the cry from Lethbridge he released his hold, and
next moment, with the colonel's arm thrown firmly round his waist, stood
safely on the ledge.

It was next the professor's turn; but now that the critical moment had
arrived for him too to drop from one ledge to another, the unwelcome
discovery was made that his nerves were unequal to the task, and for
some time persuasion, cajolery, entreaties, and threats proved equally
unavailing to tempt him to the enterprise. At length, however, in a fit
of desperation he essayed the task, hurried over it, missed his hold,
and went whirling outward from the face of the cliff. In another
instant he would have been over the precipice, and plunging headlong
downward to the death which awaited him thousands of feet below, but
most fortunately both Mildmay and the colonel saw the mishap, and made a
simultaneous snatch at him; the former succeeded in grasping him by the
arm, and, before either of the trio had time to fully realise what had
actually happened, poor von Schalckenberg was dragged--pale, breathless,
and completely unnerved--in upon the ledge.

A few minutes were allowed the unhappy professor in which to recover his
presence of mind, and then the little party cautiously worked their way
downward along the ledge, finally arriving half an hour later on the
narrow platform of ice which was now all that remained of the plateau
whereon the _Flying Fish_ had been grounded.

It had been the intention of the unfortunate adventurers to make a
temporary halt here, for the purpose of recruiting their exhausted
energies so far as it might be done by taking a few minutes' rest, but
the ice was so shivered by the shock of its recent rupture as to present
a very insecure appearance, and they were therefore constrained to keep
moving notwithstanding their fatigue. Very fortunately the breaking
away of the snow-bank had, in one place, laid bare the surface of the
rock, which here was very jagged and uneven (which would probably
account for the original accumulation of the snow in that spot), and
these irregularities were promptly utilised as a means of further
descent. By their aid an additional two hundred fee