The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-10-16
at is not that 1 fear" he answered,

hOEOyU.
Kokoya is a malevolent being who
is supposed by the Eskimos to have
an abode in the mysterious, subgla-
cial regions. Never before, however,
had l heard one acknowledge that he
really feared this evil spirit.
"Give me your lance and l will
lead the way | said.
Angwo passed the lance to me, and
stepped upon the bridge, which
was not more than ten feet in length.
Its upper surface was covered with a
hard crust. / had reached the centre
of the bridge, when suddenly, with a
dull crash. the entire mass gave way
beneath me.
dropped the lance and clutched
at the shelving brink of the icy wall
in front of me, but failed to grasp it.
Dropping swiftly downward until
the end of the line was reached, |
hung suspended twenty feet below.
The fragments of the bridge, togeth
er with Angwo's lance, ratified to the
depths of the crevasse.
Warned by the crash of the Weld
ing drift, Angwo had braced himself
to withstand the strain brought to
bear upon the line. His footslipped,
however, and be fell upon the ice.
There he was, lying motionless, not
daring to rise for fear that my weight
would drag him, too, into the Gre
vase.
| called to him to hold the line I'M
til l could chop foothold in the icy
wall beside me. Then l grasped the
rawhide above my head with one
hand, and took my knife in the other;
but had scarcely struck the first
blow, when Angwo cried out that he
was being drawn toward the chasm.
glanced upward and saw his arm
projecting over the edge of the Gre
vase. An instant later l caught the
CLEAN of steel as Angwo quickly drew
his knife across the line. The taut
rawhide was severed instantly, and
down l plunged.
Suddenly my fall was checked,
aud l found myself buried to the
shoulders in bed of soft snow, with
which the bottom of the crevasse was
filled. Overpowered with the veloc-
ity of my descent, several minutes
elapsed before l could summon suffi-
cient stength to shout.
Looking upward, l could see a
narrow strip of light far above me.
For an instant, / fancied that I saw
the Eskimo's head outlined in sill
houette against the clear background
of the sky. | shouted, but there was
no reply. Angwo was doubtless
fastening back toward the village.
EKtricating myself, not without
some difficulty, from the mass of soft
snow into which l had fallen, | peered
around me. The green, glittering
walls of the crevasse rose to height
of fifty or sixty feet above my head.
As my eyes became accustomed to
the gloom, l discovered Angwo's
lance sticking in the snow beside me.
had, in fact, narrowly escaped strik-
ing upon it in my fall.
A few yards in advance of where l
stood, a broad shaft of light, pene-
trating to the bottom of the chasm,
marked the spot where the two Gre
vases intersected. Taking the lance
aad carefully feeling my way as l
advanced, walked slowly toward the
light
Upon arriving at the angles where
the sides of the crevasse met, l
turned and entered the larger one.
By following it to the end, believed
that l should emerge beside the lat
eral river and thus escape from n.
dismal prison.
The chill of the crevasse was al
most mum Ding in its intensity, but
my chief fear was that | might STUN
BILE into some hidden pit. In places
where the snow had drifteI across
the crevasse overhead, the darkness
was impenetrable. Without mishap,