not have done had they been going to certain death,
since they would have preferred to take their chance of mercy at the
hands of the brigands. Moreover, these gentry themselves had driven the
mules into the abyss whither those wise animals would never have gone
unless there was some foothold for them.

I looked behind me but could discover nothing, for, as is common in
Mexico at the hour of dawn, the gulf was absolutely filled with dense
vapours. Then I made up my mind that I would risk it and began to
shuffle slowly backwards. Already I was near the edge when I remembered
Emma Becker and paused to reflect. If I took her with me it would
considerably lessen my chances of escape, and at any rate her life was
not threatened. But I had not given her the pistol, and at that moment
even in my panic there rose before me a vision of her face as I had seen
it in the lamplight when she looked up at the glory shining on the crest
of Orizaba.

Had it not been for this vision I think it possible that I might have
left her. I wish to gloze over nothing; I did not make my own nature,
and in these pages I describe it as it was and is without palliation or
excuse. I know that this is not the fashion in autobiographies; no one
has done it since the time of Pepys, who did not write for publication,
and for that very reason my record has its value. I am physically and,
perhaps morally also, timid--that is, although I have faced it boldly
enough upon occasion, as the reader will learn in the course of my
history, I fear the thought of death, and especially of cruel and
violent death, such as was near to me at that moment. So much did I
fear it then that the mere fact that an acquaintance was in danger and
distress would scarcely have sufficed to cause me to sacrifice, or
at least to greatly complicate, my own chances of escape in order to
promote hers simply because that acquaintance was of the other sex. But
Emma had touched a new chord in my nature, and I felt, whether I liked
it or not, that whatever I could do for myself I must do for her also.
So I shuffled forward again.

"Listen," I whispered, "I have been to look and I do not believe that
the cliff is very steep just here. Will you try it with me?"

"Of course," she answered; "I had as soon die of a broken neck as in any
other way."

"We must watch our chance then, or they will see us run and shoot. Wait
till I give you the signal."

She nodded her head and we waited.

At