he
loyalty and reserve that had marked Eldred's intercourse with her whom
he had spoken of as his best friend.

CHAPTER XIV.

"My undissuaded heart I hear
Whisper courage in my ear."
--R.L.S.

Down,--steadily, interminably down the face of that formidable ravine,
Theo Desmond slid, and scrambled, and climbed; holding his mind rigidly
on the practical necessities of the moment, which were many and
disconcerting. His stockinged feet showed dull-red streaks and blotches,
where sharp stones had cut them. His hands were grazed and torn by
futile clutchings at the surface of broken rocks: and the protruding neck
of the brandy bottle had a trick of digging him playfully in the ribs:
which made him swear. Impertinent raindrops chased each other down his
cheeks and forehead; trickling into his eyes, and blinding him at
critical moments when he dared not release a hand to brush them away.
The inch-by-inch progress to which he was condemned fretted the hasty
spirit of the man; anxiety consumed him, and conspired with impatience to
beget a nightmare illusion that he had been battling with naked rock and
dripping vegetation since the beginning of Time.

Once,--for all the caution with which he crept backward and
downward,--his foot slipped, on the wet surface of a boulder; and, in the
hope of avoiding a fall, he clutched at a small shrub, with one hand,
shielding the aggressive brandy bottle with the other. But the
treacherous sapling yielded under his weight; and wrenching its roots
from the moist earth, he rolled over and over, knocking his head and
chest violently against outlying peninsulars of rock.

Both hands were requisitioned now, in a vain effort to check a descent
that had become too rapid for comfort or dignity: and before long, a
musical clink, followed by a strong whiff of spirit, announced the fate
of the brandy bottle.

"Damn the thing!" he exclaimed in an access of helpless fury. Then a
fresh blow on his head whelmed anger and anxiety in sheer pain, and sent
him rolling like a log into a kindly patch of undergrowth, which had, so
far, blocked his downward view.

Here he lay awhile, half stunned, small runnels of water trickling from
his clothing. But his vitality--never long in abeyance--soon reasserted
itself. He sat up, and his hand went instinctively to his pocket.
Drawing out the beheaded bottle, he was relieved to find that it still
held a tablespoonful or more; and that his