ll far below.

In spite of the horrible excitement and confusion, Chris's brain was
clear enough. His left arm felt useless, and his shoulder throbbed, but
he was quite conscious that his head was not injured, and perfectly well
aware that he had stuck to the rein till the unfortunate pony had
dragged him to the edge of the precipice at the head of the valley, and
then, mad with pain, gone over, to be lying somewhere below.

But not dead yet, for every now and then the sound of the poor beast's
hoofs came up, striking at loose stones and sending more and more
clattering down into the valley.

And then for a few moments the boy turned sick, and loosing his hold of
his gun, which lay half under him, he clung with all his might to the
stone which had checked his further downward progress; for the new
thought which had attacked him was that if he did not hold fast he would
fall--fall--down the dizzy height into the black darkness of the end.

As he lay there clinging with all his might he was conscious of a wild
gabble of voices in an unknown tongue, somewhere above him, and then as
if out of a mist a stone fell, struck that to which he clung, and
glanced off, to be heard no more. But another small stone came rattling
down, in company with some earth, and opening his eyes he found himself
staring upward at the edge of the cliff and the narrow, earthy and stony
cleft down which he had fallen, recognising it even then as the probable
bed of the torrent, that had at some time or other flowed over the riven
cliff to plunge into the depths below.

The loud talking right above cleared away the last of the giddy feeling
of faintness, but only for him to be face to face with a fresh horror,
for all at once another arrow whizzed by, but yards away, and looking up
he could see the head of an Indian whose eyes glistened in the sunshine
as he peered down as if to look for the effect of the arrow he had
dispatched.

Then another head appeared, and the talking increased. Men were
shouting, and apparently the shouts were orders, and more heads
appeared. Stones and earth crumbled down too, and another arrow whizzed
by and struck somewhere near; but it did not seem to come straight down,
while another sent directly after evidently came from away to his right.

"They can't reach over far enough to get a good aim at me," thought
Chris then, with a strange sense of resignation to the inevitable making
him feel calm and patient in hi