r,
curved now more like a scimitar at its tip, which showed that the angle
was greater.

But what if before he reached the rocky platform, the cleft should grow
too narrow to admit the passage of his body? It was too late now to
think of any such impediment. He struggled upward again, slipping back
at times, clawing like a cat, with toes and fingers, fighting for his
breath, but always mounting higher, his gaze upward toward a star in the
heavens near the point of the scimitar. Would he ever reach the top?
Bits of the rock crumbled, broke off and flew out into space, and once
he slipped and slid outward, only saving himself from destruction by the
aid of a jutting piece of jagged rock which caught in his clothing. A
desperate venture--but successful, for with one final effort, with
fingers torn, and knees and elbows bruised and bleeding, he hauled
himself up to the level of the flat projection of rock upon which he
dragged himself, exhausted and breathless, but so far, safe.

He lay there for a long time, flat on his back, his eyes dimmed with
effort, his gaze on the stars, which now seemed to blink in a friendly
way upon his venture. To succeed so far--failure was now impossible.
Fearfully he peered over the edge of the cliff upon the velvety
tree-tops of the valley below. Three hundred feet, four perhaps, and
beyond to the left where the crag fell down to the very bed of the Dukla
itself, black void--vacancy.

Above him still was the hazardous climb up the broken face of the rocks,
but he did not fear it. His nerves were iron now. There were roots
growing here, and small bushes, stunted trees, growing in the
interstices of the rocks, and he climbed steadily, always looking
upward, toward the breach in the wall now so very near, fifty feet,
forty--and then the wall seemed to hang over him smooth and bare. So he
hung there by a sturdy branch, one foot clinging, and studied the
surface, descending a few feet carefully and then rising again to the
left in a fissure, swinging himself along a narrow ledge where the
masonry of the bastion joined the rock. Over this he climbed, finding
solid footing at last, and then rest and a breathing space within the
broken walls.

He lay behind a pile of rocks which had fallen from the walls of the
watchtower, recovering his breath again, and the strength of his
fingers, every bone of which was crying out in protest. He peered over
into the depths below, trying to measure the distan