Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-12-28


selves And then addressing herself TO
Bilali, "Do thou and those slaves remain
here, and abide our coming. BY tomorrow
at the midday We shall be with thee; if not
wait
And this man, oh Holly said She,
pointing to job, best is it that he should
tarry also, for if his heart be not high and
his courage great. perchauce some evil
might overtake him. Also. the secrets of
he place whittier we go are not MT for
common eyes.
translated this to job, who entreated
me not to leave him behind. | translated
what he said to Ayesha, who answered:
We'll. let him come; it is naught Ia me
on his own head be it; and he will serve To
bear the lamp and this, and she pointed
To a narrow plank, some 16 feet long.
which had brought for some unknown
pArpose. According the plank was given
20 job to carry and also one of the lamps.
slung the other on my back, together
with spare jar of oil. while Leo loaded
with the provisions and some water In
kids skin When this was done, She made
Billali aud the six bearer mutes TO retreat
behind grove Of Towering magnolias and
remain there under the pain of death till
we had vanished. In another minute they
were gone, and then. having briefly asked
us If we were ready, Ayesha turned and
gazed up the towering cliff
Goodness me, Leo" said, surely we
are not going to climb that?'
Leo shrugged his shoulders, being in
condition of justification, and as he did
so Ayesha began to climb The cliff, and of
course we had TO follow her. We grad
ually got into kind of rut or fold of rock
that grew deeper and deeper till at last it
resembled Devonshire lane in stone.
This lane ended in cave. also natural,
AT right angles to 1t. At the mouth of this
cave Ayesha halted and babe us light the
TWO lams, which | did, giuing one to her
and keeping the other myself. Then she
advanced down the cavern, which we
pursued for distance of a quarter of
mile At last we halted at its further end,
and while was trying to pierce the gloom,
gust of air came tearing down and eXtin.
guished both lamps, Ayesha called TO us,
and we crept up to her, and were rewarded
with view that was positively appalling
in its gloom and grandeur Before us was
a mighty chasm In the black rock, jagged
and torn and sphntered through it in far
past age by some awful CONFUSION of Ma
ture
Here we must pause said Ayesha
BE careful lest giddness overcome we or
the wind sweep we into the gulf beneath,
for Of a truth it hath no bottom and
she started walking along the spur, leaving
us TO follow. | was next to her, then
came Job, painfully dragging the plank.
while Leo brought up the rear. 1t was a
wonderful sight to see this intrepid woman
gliding fearessly along that dreadful
place. found it necessary to crawl on
my hands and knees, and so did the other
two.
In few minutes we had crossed some
twenty PAGES of this awfnl bridge which
got narrower at every step, and then of
the gorge | saw Ayesha lean herself
against it, but the strong draught got under
her dark cloak and tore it from her.
"On, on cried the white form, ION, or
Col H. a. 4
your eyes fixed upon the ground and hug
the rock closely"
On we went, until we saw that we were
on the very tip of the spur, a slab of rock
that throbbed and jumped like an over
engineI steamer Then we saw why the
narrow plank had been provided Before
us was empty space. On the other side
was something, as yet we could not see
what for the gloom was that of night.
I'VE must wait awhile" said Ayesha
"Soon there will be light
Aud now, by this ray of light, for which
She had been waiting and timed our ar
rival to meet We saw what lay before us
Within eleven or twelve feet Of the very
tip of the tongue like rock wherein we lay
there arose a sugar loaf-shaped cone, the
nearest point Of the circumference some
forty feet from where we were. On the
lip of this summit rested tremendous fla,
stone, the end of which approached TO
within twelve feet of US This huge boul.
der was nothing more or tess than gigan-
tic rocking stone balanced upon the edge
If the cone, or miniature crater, In the
fierce light we could see it oscillating IN
the gusts of wind.
"Quickl" said Ayesha the plank We
must crossIwhile the light endures; present
" it will be gone"
ooh, Lord, sir" groaned job. "Surey
she don't mean us to walk across that there
place on that there thugy"
That's it, job. hallood.
pushed the plank on to Ayesha. who
deity ran It across the gulf so that one end