trail. But this they knew was merely the howling force of the
wind. With a shift of direction by half a point and the gale would
drive it straight down the trail they were on.

The trail bent away to the left. And as they swung past the turn Buck
again shouted.

"Now for it!"

He dashed his spurs again at the flanks of his horse, and the great
beast stretched out for a final burst across the bridge over the
narrow creek.

CHAPTER XXXV

FROM OUT OF THE ABYSS

Joan swayed where she stood. She stumbled and fell; and the fall went
on, and on, and on. It seemed to her that she was rushing down through
endless space toward terrors beyond all believing. It seemed to her
that a terrific wind was beating on her, and driving her downward
toward a fiercely storm-swept ocean, whose black, hideous waves were
ever reaching up to engulf her.

She cried out. She knew she cried out, and she knew she cried out in
vain. Some one, it seemed to her, was far, far up above her, watching,
seeking to aid her, but powerless to respond to her heart-broken
cries. Still she called, and she knew she must go on calling, till the
dark seas below drowned the voice in her throat.

Now shadows arose about her, mocking, cruel shadows. They were
definite figures, but she could not give them definite form in her
mind. She reached out toward them, clutching vainly at fluttering
shapes, but ever missing them in her headlong career. She sped on,
buffeted and hurtling, and torn; on, on, making that hideous journey
through space.

Her despairing thoughts flashed at lightning speed through her
whirling brain. Faster they came, faster and faster, till she had no
time to recognize, no power to hold them. She could see them, yes, she
could literally see them sweep by, vanishing like shadows in that
black space of terror.

Then came a sudden accession of sharp stabbing pain. It seemed to tick
through her body as might a clock, and each stab came as with the sway
of the pendulum, and with a regularity that was exquisite torture. The
stabs of pain came quicker, the pendulum was working faster. Faster
and faster it swung, and so the torture was ever increasing. Now the
pain was in her head, her eyes, her ears, her brain. The agony was
excruciating. Her head was bursting. She cried louder and louder, and,
with every cry, the pain increased until she felt she was going mad.
Then suddenly the pendulum stopped swinging and her cries and her
agony ceas