a, and the task is not of the easiest, even for one of
untroubled mind, for a man must step from crack to crack or needle
to needle of rough ice, that stand upon the smooth surface like the
bristles on a hog's back, and woe to him if one break or if he slip, for
then, as he falls, very shortly the flesh will be filed from his bones
by the thousands of sword-like points over which he must pass in his
descent towards the snow. Indeed, many times I feared greatly lest this
should chance to de Garcia, for I did not desire to lose my vengeance
thus. Therefore twice when I saw him in danger I shouted to him, telling
him where to put his feet, for now I was within twenty paces of
him, and, strange to say, he obeyed me without question, forgetting
everything in his terror of instant death. But for myself I had no fear,
for I knew that I should not fall, though the place was one which I had
surely shrunk from climbing at any other time.

All this while we had been travelling towards Xaca's fiery crest by the
bright moonlight, but now the dawn broke suddenly on the mountain top,
and the flame died away in the heart of the pillar of smoke. It was
wonderful to see the red glory that shone upon the ice-cap, and on us
two men who crept like flies across it, while the mountain's breast and
the world below were plunged in the shadows of night.

'Now we have a better light to climb by, comrade!' I called to de
Garcia, and my voice rang strangely among the ice cliffs, where never a
man's voice had echoed before.

As I spoke the mountain rumbled and bellowed beneath us, shaking like
a wind-tossed tree, as though in wrath at the desecration of its sacred
solitudes. With the rumbling came a shower of grey ashes that rained
down on us, and for a little while hid de Garcia from my sight. I heard
him call out in fear, and was afraid lest he had fallen; but presently
the ashes cleared away, and I saw him standing safely on the lava rim
that surrounds the crater.

Now, I thought, he will surely make a stand, for could he have found
courage it had been easy for him to kill me with his sword, which he
still wore, as I climbed from the ice to the hot lava. It seemed that he
thought of it, for he turned and glared at me like a devil, then went on
again, leaving me wondering where he believed that he would find refuge.
Some three hundred paces from the edge of the ice, the smoke and steam
of the crater rose into the air, and between the two was la