nced on a few inches of rock, oscillate in a most dreadful
manner, and, to make matters worse, when he was half-way across the
flying ray of lurid light suddenly went out, just as though a lamp
had been extinguished in a curtained room, leaving the whole howling
wilderness of air black with darkness.

"Come on, Job, for God's sake!" I shouted in an agony of fear, while the
stone, gathering motion with every swing, rocked so violently that it
was difficult to hang on to it. It was a truly awful position.

"Lord have mercy on me!" cried poor Job from the darkness. "Oh, the
plank's slipping!" and I heard a violent struggle, and thought that he
was gone.

But at that moment his outstretched hand, clasping in agony at the
air, met my own, and I hauled--ah, how I did haul, putting out all
the strength that it has pleased Providence to give me in such
abundance--and to my joy in another minute Job was gasping on the rock
beside me. But the plank! I felt it slip, and heard it knock against a
projecting knob of rock, and it was gone.

"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "How are we going to get back?"

"I don't know," answered Leo, out of the gloom. "'Sufficient to the day
is the evil thereof,' I am thankful enough to be here."

But Ayesha merely called to me to take her hand and creep after her.

XXV

THE SPIRIT OF LIFE

I did as I was bid, and in fear and trembling felt myself guided over
the edge of the stone. I sprawled my legs out, but could touch nothing.

"I am going to fall!" I gasped.

"Nay, let thyself go, and trust to me," answered Ayesha.

Now, if the position is considered, it will be easily understood that
this was a greater demand upon my confidence than was justified by my
knowledge of Ayesha's character. For all I knew she might be in the very
act of consigning me to a horrible doom. But in life we sometimes have
to lay our faith upon strange altars, and so it was now.

"Let thyself go!" she cried, and, having no choice, I did.

I felt myself slide a pace or two down the sloping surface of the rock,
and then pass into the air, and the thought flashed through my brain
that I was lost. But no! In another instant my feet struck against a
rocky floor, and I felt that I was standing upon something solid, and
out of reach of the wind, which I could hear singing away overhead. As
I stood there thanking Heaven for these small mercies, there was a slip
and a scuffle, and down came Leo alongside of me.

"H