k masses of snow that covered us so that
we could not see each other; choked us so that we could hardly speak or
breathe.

And the cold! the cold! It cut us like knives; it beat the life out of
us as if with hammers.

This sudden, overwhelming horror struck us dumb. We could only cling
together and pray. It was plain that there must be a rent in the silk, a
large one, caused probably by the climbing of the men, a rent that might
widen at any moment and reduce the balloon to ribbons.

We were being dashed along in a wild storm of wind and snow, the
headlong force of which alone delayed the fate which seemed surely to
await us. Where should we fall? The world beneath us was near and
palpable, yet we could not distinguish any object upon it. But we fell
lower and lower, until our eyes informed us all in an instant, and we
exclaimed together:--

"_We are falling into the sea!_" Yes, there it was beneath us, raging
and leaping like a beast of prey. We should be drowned! We _must_ be
drowned! There was no hope, none!

Down we came slantwise to the water. The foam from the top of a
mountain-wave scudded through the ropes of the car. Then the hurricane
bore us up again on its fierce breast, and--yes, it was bearing us to
the shore!

We saw the coast-line, the high, red cliffs--saw the cruel rocks at
their base! Horrible! Better far to fall into the water and drown, if
die we must.

The balloon flew over the rugged boulders, the snow and the foam of the
sea indistinguishable around us, and made straight for the high,
towering precipice.

We should dash against the jagged front! The balloon was plunging down
like a maddened bull, when suddenly, within 12 ft. of the rock, there
was a thrilling cry from Kenneth Moore, and up we shot, almost clearing
the projecting summit. Almost--not quite--sufficiently to escape death;
but the car, tripping against the very verge, hurled Phillip and myself,
clasped in each other's arms, far over the level snow.

We rose unhurt, to find ourselves alone.

What had become of our comrade--my childhood's playfellow, the man who
had loved me so well, and whom I had cast away?

He was found later by some fishermen--a shapeless corpse upon the beach.

I stood awe-stricken in an outbuilding of a little inn that gave us
shelter, whither they had borne the poor shattered body, and I wept over
it as it lay there covered with the fragment of a sail.

My husband was by my side, and his voice wa