--vast in length only;
for, thirty or forty yards from where he stood, there was the huge blank
face of the mountain going downward, as one vast perpendicular wall of
grey rock, streaked with snow where there were ledges for it to cling.
In fact, the snow from above hung hen; and there as if ready to fall
into the black gulf, still full of darkness, and whose depths could not
be plumbed until the light displaced the gloom, and a safe coign of
vantage could be found from which the adventurer could look down.

In fact, the young soldier was on the edge of a stupendous
_bergschrund_, as the phenomenon is termed by Swiss climbers--a deep
chasm formed by the ice and snow shrinking or falling away from the side
of a mountain, where the latter is too steep for it to cling. And then,
after a little examination to right and left, Gedge, with beating heart,
found the place where Bracy had stepped forward and instantaneously
fallen. There was no doubt about it, for the searcher found the two
spots where he himself had so nearly gone down, the snow showing great
irregular patches, bitten off, as it were, leaving sharp, rugged,
perpendicular edges; while where Bracy had fallen there were two
footprints and a deep furrow, evidently formed by the rifle, to which he
had clung, the furrow growing deeper as it neared the edge of the snow,
through which it had been dragged.

Gedge's face flushed with excitement as he grasped all this and proved
its truth, for, between where he stood and the footprints made through
the crust of snow, there were his own marks, those made by his bayonet,
and others where he had flung himself down, for the snow here was far
softer than upon the slope.

In spite of the darkness still clinging to the depths, Gedge began at
once searching for a safe place--one where he could crawl to the edge of
the gulf, get his face over, and look down; but anywhere near where
Bracy had gone down this was in vain, for the snow curved over like some
huge volute of glittering whiteness, and several times over, when he
ventured, it was to feel that his weight was sufficient to make the snow
yield, sending him back with a shudder.

Baffled again and again, he looked to right and left, in search of some
slope by whose means he could descend into the gulf; but he looked in
vain--everywhere the snow hung over, and as the light increased he saw
that the curve was far more than he had imagined.

"Oh, if I only knowed what to do!