it!' I
called to John, who was clinging to the cliff some yards behind and
above me. 'Don't follow until I call you.'

"'Look out!' said he.

"'Oh, it's all right,' I said, confidently.

"I turned my back to the rock and moved out, stepping sidewise. It
was not difficult until I came to a point where the cliff is
overhanging--it may be a space of twelve feet or less; then I had to
stoop, and the awkward position made my situation precarious in the
extreme, for the rock seemed all the while bent on thrusting me off.

"The river was roaring past. Below me the water was breaking over a
great rock, whence it shot, swift and strong, against a boulder which
rose above it. I could hear the hiss and swish and thunder of it; and
had I been less confident in my foothold, I might then and there have
been hopelessly unnerved. There was no mercy in those seething
rapids.

"'A fall would be the end of me,' I thought; 'but I will not fall.'

"Fall I did, however, and that suddenly, just after I had rounded the
point and was hidden from John's sight. The cold of the late afternoon
had frozen my boots stiff; they had been soaked in the swamp-lands,
and the water was now all turned to ice.

"My soles were slippery and my feet were awkwardly managed. I
slipped.

"My feet shot from under me. A flash of terror went through me. Then I
found myself lying on my hip, on the edge of the shelf with my legs
dangling over the rapids, my shoulder pressing the cliff, my hands
flat on the ice, and my arms sustaining nearly the whole weight of my
body.

"At that instant I heard a thud and a splash, as of something striking
the water, and turning my eyes, I perceived that a section of the snow
ledge had fallen from the cliff. It was not large, but it was between
John and me, and the space effectually shut him off from my
assistance.

"My problem was to get to my feet again. But how? The first effort
persuaded me that it was impossible. My shoulder was against the
cliff. When I attempted to raise myself to a seat on the ledge I
succeeded only in pressing my shoulder more firmly against the rock.
Wriggle as I would, the wall behind kept me where I was. I could not
gain an inch. I needed no more, for that would have relieved my arms
by throwing more of my weight upon my hips.

"I was in the position of a boy trying to draw himself to a seat on a
window-sill, with the difference that my heels were of no help to me,
for they were dangling in