had left the path and was
descending the slope.

"Am I near you now?" he asked.

"I think you must be," was the reply. And then the voice added, with a
little laugh, "How ridiculous it all is, and how sorry I am to trouble
you!"

Had she known to what this extraordinary introduction was destined to
lead, it is very doubtful whether she would have considered it so full
either of humour or regret as her words implied.

Inch by inch Browne continued his advance, until he could just
distinguish, seated on the ground below him, and clinging with both her
arms to a stunted birch-tree, the figure of the girl for whom he was
searching. At most she was not more than five feet from him. Then,
with that suddenness which is the peculiar property of Norwegian mists,
the vapour, which had up to that moment so thickly enveloped them,
rolled away, and the whole landscape was revealed to their gaze. As he
took in the position, Browne uttered a cry of horror. The girl had
wandered off the path, slipped down the bank, and was now clinging to a
tree only a few feet removed from the brink of one of the most terrible
precipices along the Norwegian coast.

So overwhelmed was he with horror that for a moment Browne found
himself quite unable to say or do anything. Then, summoning to his
assistance all the presence of mind of which he was master, he
addressed the girl, who, seeing the danger to which she was exposed,
was clinging tighter than ever to the tree, her face as white as the
paper upon which I am now writing. For a moment the young man scarcely
knew how to act for the best. To leave her while he went for
assistance was out of the question; while it was very doubtful, active
as he was, whether he would be able, unaided, to get her up in her
injured condition to the path above. Ridiculous as the situation may
have appeared in the fog, it had resolved itself into one of absolute
danger now, and Browne felt the perspiration start out upon his
forehead as he thought of what would have happened had she missed the
tree and rolled a few feet farther. One thing was quite
certain--something must be done; so, taking off his coat, he lowered it
by the sleeve to her, inquiring at the same time whether she thought
she could hold on to it while he pulled her up to the path above. She
replied that she would endeavour to do so, and thereupon the struggle
commenced. A struggle it certainly was, and an extremely painful one,
for the g