w, and sending some
scraps flying with a curious whispering noise which startled him.

"What does that mean?" he said, and he caught at the butt of his piece,
now sticking upward in the snow, but dropped his hand again to his
pocket and again took out his match-box.

"Sort o' fancy," he muttered; and, getting out a match, he struck it,
after shutting the box with a snap, which again made him start,
something like an echo rising from close at hand.

"Why, I'm as nervous as a great gal," he muttered, as the tiny match
burst into a bright flame which formed a bit of a halo about itself,
and, stooping to bring the tiny clear light burning so brightly close to
the surface, he took two steps forward, the ground at the second giving
way beneath him, and at the same moment he uttered a wild shriek of
horror, dashed the match from him, and threw himself backward on to the
snow. For the tiny light had in that one brief moment revealed a horror
to him which was a full explanation of the trouble, and as he lay
trembling in every limb, his shriek was repeated from a short distance
away, and then again and again rapidly, till it took the form of a wild
burst of laughter.

"Get up, you coward!" growled Gedge the next minute, as he made a brave
effort to master the terrible shock he had sustained, for he felt that
he had been within an inch of following his officer to a horrible death.

The self-delivered charge of cowardice brought him to himself directly,
and he sprang to his feet. Then, with fingers wet with a cold
perspiration, and trembling as if with palsy, he dragged out his
match-box, took out one of the tiny tapers, and essayed to light it, but
only produced streaks of phosphorescent light, for he had taken the
match out by the end, and his wet fingers had quenched its lighting
powers.

With the next attempt he was more successful; and, setting aside all
fear of being seen, he held out the flaming light, which burned without
motion in the still air, and, holding it before him, stepped towards the
edge of the snow, which ended suddenly in a black gulf, over which he
was in the act of leaning, when once more he sprang back and listened,
for the snow where he stood had given way, and as he remained motionless
for a few moments, there suddenly came up from far below, a dull thud,
followed by a strange whispering series of echoes as if off the face of
some rocks beyond.

"Oh!" he groaned. "That's it, then. It was down t