s of the cleft clear enough for him to see far above him
where the ledge ran horizontally along the side of the huge wall; and
the change in colour showed him where what seemed to be quite a small
portion had dropped away.

Chris's next effort was to feel himself over and move his limbs, which
felt sore, and ached; but he soon found that he was not hurt, and began
to try and realise his position.

As far as he could make out he was in a rift of the valley; walls almost
completely shut him in on three sides and nearly so on the fourth, but
here there was light--bright light--coming through a lightning-shaped,
enormous crack which zigzagged downward from a great height, and whose
depth below he could not trace.

The position would have been enough to confuse a man at any time, but
now after the fall it was tenfold more puzzling than it would have been
to one trying to ascend the rock-face. But Chris soon came to the
determination that the open valley must be out beyond the zigzag rift,
and shaking himself clear of the rubbish which adhered to his garments,
he felt that his weapons were all right, and then began to make his way
over the fallen stones and earth to the great crack.

"I must be a long way down the cliff," thought the lad; "but it's
wonderful that I'm not hurt--more," he added after a pause, for a
feeling of stiffness and pain began to trouble him.

With the pain the remembrance of the Indians began to come back from
where it had been driven, and instinctively drawing round his rifle, he
looked upward; but the edge of the cliff was not visible from where he
stood, and there was no fierce-looking warrior upon any ledge drawing
his bow to send an arrow whizzing through the air. But all the same
Chris instinctively hastened his steps over the yielding _debris_,
seeing as he did that once inside the zigzag rift he would be sheltered
from any such danger as that.

The next minute he had left the heaped-up earth and shale, to begin
climbing over blocks of hard stone which filled up the bottom of the
rift, finding the way difficult, even painful, with the light a very
short distance in front, but with jagged masses hanging threateningly
overhead and looking as if a touch would bring them thundering down.

It was only fancy though, for they would be immovable until the water
that the boy now heard trickling softly amongst the stones far beneath
his feet had gone on doing its insidious mining perhaps for ages,