The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-07-25

thence down through a stratum Of
death and negation between mere blind
walls of frigid inhumanity, to have
been stayed moment by which would
have pointed all our limbs as stiff iciles,
as stiff as those of frogs plunged into
boiling water. But we passed and fell,
still crashing upon no obstruction
and thought pursued US, trailing fur
Their behind. 1t was the passage of the
eternal night-frozen, self-contained,
awful as any fancied darkness that is
without one tradition of a star. Yet,
struggling hereafter to, in some shad-
oWy sense, renew my feelings of the
moment, it seemed to me that 1 had not
fallen through darkness at all; but
rather that the friction of descent had
kindled an inner radiance in me that
was independent of the vision of the
eyes, and full of promise of a sudden
illumination of the sould.
Now-after falling What depth God
knows-I became numbly aware of a
little grinding sensation at my back,
that communicated a whizzing small
vibration to my whole frame. Per-
ceptibly, in that magnificent refinement
of speed, our enormous pace, l felt to
decrease ever SO little. Still we had so
far outstripped intelligence that [ was
incapable of considering the cause of
the change.
Suddenly, for the first time, pain
made itself known; and Immediately
reason plunged from above, overlook
me, and 1 could think Then it was
became conscious that instead of fall
ing we were Distinguishing with i'm
mense SWlftnesS, but at a pace that
momentarily slackened-rising slipping
over ice and in contact with it. The
muscles of my arms clasped till about
Fidele, involuntarily swelled to her Mon
Dleu! there was tiny answering pres
sure. L could have screamed with joy;
but physical anguish overmastered me.
My back seemed bursting into flame;
the suffering was intolerabIe. When
at last I thought I should go mad. in
a moment we took a surging swoop,
shot down an easy incline, and stop
pedl
There had been noise in our descent.
as only L now knew by its cessation
a Missing sound as of wire whirring
from drawplate. In the profound
enormous silence that 'enwrapped US.
the bliss of freedom from that metallic
accompaniment fell on me like a balm
My eyelids closed; possibly [ tainted
Au in a moment I came to myself
to an undefinable sense of the trenen-
dous pressure of nothingness. Dark
ness! 1T was not that, yet it was as lit
tie light 1t was as if we lay in a dim
luminous chaos, ourselves an integral
part of it's self-containment. I did not
stir, but spoke, and my strange voice
broke the enchantment. Surely never
before or since was speech exchanged
under such conditions. 'Fidelei"
can speak, but I cannot look. If
1 hide so for ever, I can die brave1y"
My petite! oh, my petite one. Are
you hurt?''
Il don't know. I think NOT
Her voice, her dear voice was so odd,
but, mon Dieu, how wonderful in it's
courage! That heaven be praised, is
no monopoly of intellect. Indeed, it is
imagination that makes men towards,
and to the lack of this possibly we
owed our salvation
Now, calm and freed of that haunt
ing jar of descent, I became conscious
that a sound that I had at first taken
for the rush of my own arteries, had
an origin apart from us. 1t was like
the wash and thunder of waters in a
deep sewer. 'FFfdelel" l said again.
81 am listening
Hear them Canst thou freee my
right arm that / may feel for the luci-
fers in my pocket?'
She moved at once, never raising her
face from IF 7
box, found it, and manipulating with
one hand, succeeded in striking
match. 1t famed up, a long wax vesta.
A glory of sleek fire sprang on the in
slant into life We lay imprisoned in
a house of glass, at the foot of
smooth incline rising behind us to I'M
known nights. A wall of porous and
opaque ice rubbish into which our
feet had plunged deep, had stayed our
progress.
I placed the box by my side ready for
use. Our last moments should be of
lavish splendor. STOPPING for another
match, to kindle from the flame of the
nearly expired one, a thought struck
me- Why had we not been at once
frozen to death? Yet we lay where we
had brought up as snug and glowing as
bedclothes. The answer came to me in
a flash We had fallen sheer to the
glacier bed, which, warmed by subter-
ranean heat, was ever in process of
melting. Possibly but comparatively
thin curtain of perforated ice separat-
ed us from the under torrent. The en-
forced conclusion was astounding, but
as yet it inspired no hope. We were
none the less doomed and buried.
I lit a match, turned about, and gave
a start of terror. There imbedded in
the transparent wall at my very Shout
der was omething-the body of a man!
A horrible sight-a horrible, horrible
sight-crushed flattened-a caricature
the very gouts of blood that had
burst from him held poised in the
massed congelations of water. For how
long ages had he been travelling to the
valley, and from what nights? He was
of a bygone generation, by his huge
coat-cuffs, his metal buttons, by his
shoe buckles and the white stockings
on his legs which were pressed thin
and sharp, as if cut out of paper Had
he been a climber, an explorer, con-
temporary, perhaps, of Saussure and
rival? And what had been his unre-
corded fate? To slip into crevasse,
and so for the parted ice to snap upon
him again, like a hideous jaw? Its
work done, it might at least have
opened and dropped him through, not
held him intact to jog us, out of all
that world of despair, with his battered
to witness In others the
fate he had himself suffered!
I dropped the match I was holding;
I frightened my clasp convulsively
a bout Fidele. Thank God she at any
- l1;.d e tl,;c, l,r,-,.o,. nj hin a