"No, you can come back anyway--I'll stay here now and look around,"
replied the youth, firmly.

Bjornhof pointed out the exact spot from which Mr. Porter had fallen,
and without waiting Dave trudged off, and the others continued their
climb up the mountain. Soon a point of rocks separated them, and Dave
found himself utterly alone.

Had he had less to think about the boy might have felt very lonely. But
now his heart was filled with thoughts of his parent, and he never gave
the situation in which he was placed any consideration. On and on he
hurried. Twice he fell on the slippery rocks, but picked himself up
just as quickly. In his mind's eye he could see his father helpless at
the bottom of the cliffs, with a broken leg or a fractured rib, or
suffering for the want of food and warmth. Such thoughts were
terrifying, and caused him to shudder from head to foot.

"This must be the place!"

He spoke the words as he came to a spot where footprints in the snow
were plainly visible. He looked around eagerly and made out where his
father had slipped from that cliff to the hollow below. Here was a long
icy slide, and Dave did not dare to venture too close to the brink, for
fear of going over.

"That hollow must be at least a hundred feet deep," reasoned the youth.
"How am I ever to get down there?"

He called out, but no answer came back. Then he walked slowly to the far
end of the cliff, behind and over some jagged rocks which at first
seemed to completely bar the way.

He heaved a long sigh, then looked at the very end of the cliff. Here
the rocks were notched and uneven, and he found a spot where he could
drop a distance of fifteen feet in safety. But after that?

"If I get down there perhaps I won't be able to get back--if I want to,"
he reasoned. "But I'm going down, anyway--and find out what became of
father," he added, recklessly. The drop taken, he found himself on a
ledge several yards wide and twice as long. To his delight back of the
ledge was a hollow leading downward.

"Perhaps that goes to the bottom of the cliff," he mused. "I'll try it,
anyway."

The passageway was dangerous, being covered with ice, and he had to move
literally an inch at a time. Once he slipped, but caught fast to a ridge
of ice just in time to save himself. It made his heart leap into his
throat, yet he kept on. He was so eager to gain the object of his quest
that no peril, no matter how great, could have daunted him. Surely
"