ust as the cock's spur is attached to its leg. Otherwise it was utterly
unsupported.

"Here must we pass," said Ayesha. "Be careful lest giddiness overcome
you, or the wind sweep you into the gulf beneath, for of a truth it hath
no bottom;" and, without giving us any further time to get scared, she
started walking along the spur, leaving us to follow her as best we
might. I was next to her, then came Job, painfully dragging his plank,
while Leo brought up the rear. It was a wonderful sight to see this
intrepid woman gliding fearlessly along that dreadful place. For my
part, when I had gone but a very few yards, what between the pressure
of the air and the awful sense of the consequences that a slip would
entail, I found it necessary to go down on my hands and knees and crawl,
and so did the other two.

But Ayesha never condescended to this. On she went, leaning her body
against the gusts of wind, and never seeming to lose her head or her
balance.

In a few minutes we had crossed some twenty paces of this awful bridge,
which got narrower at every step, and then all of a sudden a great gust
came tearing along the gorge. I saw Ayesha lean herself against it, but
the strong draught got under her dark cloak, and tore it from her, and
away it went down the wind flapping like a wounded bird. It was dreadful
to see it go, till it was lost in the blackness. I clung to the saddle
of rock, and looked round, while, like a living thing, the great spur
vibrated with a humming sound beneath us. The sight was a truly awesome
one. There we were poised in the gloom between earth and heaven. Beneath
us were hundreds upon hundreds of feet of emptiness that gradually grew
darker, till at last it was absolutely black, and at what depth it ended
is more than I can guess. Above was space upon space of giddy air, and
far, far away a line of blue sky. And down this vast gulf upon which we
were pinnacled the great draught dashed and roared, driving clouds and
misty wreaths of vapour before it, till we were nearly blinded, and
utterly confused.

The whole position was so tremendous and so absolutely unearthly, that I
believe it actually lulled our sense of terror, but to this hour I often
see it in my dreams, and at its mere phantasy wake up covered with cold
sweat.

"On! on!" cried the white form before us, for now the cloak had gone,
_She_ was robed in white, and looked more like a spirit riding down the
gale than a woman; "On, or ye will