The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-08-14

AAD<0 &4Q w.
ward the horizon. Turning my head I
could trace the marrow stone of my
footing to where my rope dangisd, per-
haps three hundred yards distant.
at seemed to hang within easy reach
Of the cliff face ants instantly / resolved
and as instantly proceeded to work to-
ward it. No time remained for hesita-
ton. Night was coming on. / rea-
soned that my comrades thought me
killed. They had probably gone to
view the new condition of the precipice
from q lower station, and on their re-
turn would haul up and carry offthe
rope, j made a move toward it. Try
to think of that journey"
/ nodded to him silently.
"Shufaing sideways very carefully, /
had not made five yards before / knew
that / could not continue TO look out
over that abyss without glancing down,
and that / could not glance down with
out losing my senses. You have the
brick line to keep eyes on as you walk
along the factory wall; do you think
you could move along it erect, looking
down as you would have to? Yet it is
only one hundred feet high. Imagine
five more such walls on top of that, and
you trying to move sidewise-incapable
of closing your eyes, forced to look
down, from end to end yes, three times
further! Imagine you've got to go on or
Jump off. Would you not, in IN ecstasy
Of agitation, fall to your knees,
get down face-first at full length, clutch
by your hands and with shut eyes feel
your way? / longed to lie down and
hold, but of course that was impossi-
ble."
"Still, there was a wall at your back"
/ observed Jack.
"That made it worsel The cliff
seemed 10 press outward against me.
1t did, in fact, incline very slightly out
ward. 1t seemed to be thrusting me
off. Oh, the horror of that sensationl
Your toes ON the edge of a precipice,
and the applicable, calm mountain APP
parentiy weighing you slowly forward"
Beads OF sweat broke out over his
white face at the horror he had called
before him. Wiping his lips nervously
with the back of his hand, and looking
askant, as at the narrow pathway, he
paused long. I saw its cruel edge and
the dark CLEANS of its abysmal water.
"I knew" he resumed "that with my
back to the wall / could never reach the
rope. I could not face toward it and
step forward, SO narrow was the ledge.
Motion was perhaps barely possible
that way, but the breadth Of my shout
ders would have forced me to lean some-
what more outward; and this / dared
not and could not do. Also, to see a
solid surface before me became an
irresistible desire. / resolved to try to
turn round before resuming the des-
perate journey. To do this / had to
nerve myself for one steady look at my
footing.
"In the depth below the myriad sea-
fowl then rested on the black water
which, though swelling more with the
rising wind, had yet an nnbroken sur
face at some little distance from the
precipice, while further out it had be-
gan to Jump to white caps, and in be-
meath me, where i could not see, it
dashed and churned with a faint, per-
vading roar that / could barely dis
tinguish. Before the descending sun
a heavy bank of cloud had arisen.
The oceans surface bore that appear
ance of intense and, angry gloom that
often heralds a storm, but, save the
deep murmur going out from far below
my perch, all to my hearing was dead
ly still.
Cautiously J. swung my right foot
before the other and carefully edged
around. For an instant, as my shout
der rubbed against the rock, ( felt that
I must fall. i did stagger, in fact, but
the next moment stood firm, face to the
beetling cliff, my heels on the very edge,
and the new sensation of the abyss be-
hind me no less horrible than that from
which Ihad with such difficulty escaped.
I stood quaking. "A delirious horror
thrilled every y.csve. The skin about
my ears and neck, suddenly cold, shrank
convulsively.
"Wild with fear, I thrust forward
my head against the rock and rested In
agony. A whir and wind Of sudden
wings made me conscious of outward
things again. Then q mad eagerness to
climb swept away other feeling, and my
hands attempted in vain to clutch the
rock. Not daring to cast my head back
ward, / drew it tortoise like between
my raised shoulders and chin against
the precipice, aud gazed upward with
straining of vision from under my eye
brows.
Ear above the dead wall stretched.
Sidewise chances gave me glimpses Of
the projecting summit coping. There
was no hope in that direction. But the
distraction Of scanning the cliffs side had
given my strained nerves some relief;
to my memory again returned the prom
Use of the Almighty and the conscious
ness of His regard. Once more my
muscles became armstrong.
ga cautious stem sidewise made me