The San Francisco call., 1898-01-02

cup. Slowly, slowly up. foot by foot, yard by yard, until one-third of the dis
 tance was climbed,
 The suspense and strain were immeas-
 urable; it was like bringing the Charming Nancy alone through gale with a wind ward tide, while she yaws and quivers ,over twice the length of her buge; or it was like watching a lower deck gun
 straining under a heavy sea, with the :. ,1anyards and port tacks flying and no
 Knowing when the great machine would fly from her carriage and make havoc of :: the ship and the crew. But he struggled : on and on, and now at last he had reach :: ed jutting piece of rock with sort of :. flying pinnacle, like a hook for the gods ito hang their shields on, if shields they : carried.
 Here Antoine ventured to look below :: He half expected to see Minois, but there :. was only the white sand and the only ~sound was the long wash of the gulf. He .: drew the horn of arrack from his pocket and drank. He had two hundred feet :. more to climb, and the next hundred that would test him, that would be the . ordeal!
 -. There was no time to lose. While he
 hung there a musket shot could pick :him off from below, and there was no y telling how soon his assertion would be discovered He hoped it would not be till
 morning. He started again. This was /. travail inoeed. His rough fingers, his :tocs. which were aim st like horn, began
 to bleed. Oncc CT twice he swung quite clear of the wall, hanging by his fingers
 to catch a surer foothold to right or left,
 and just getting it by an inch, or less,
 sometimes. The strain and tension
 were terrible. His head appeared to swell and fill with blood; on : top it hurt him so much that it :: seemed to him it must burst. His neck
 was aching horribly with the constant looking up, the skin of his knees was gone, his ankles were bruised. But he " must keep on till he got to the top, or : until he fell.
 He was fighting on in a kind of dream
 which was quite apart from all usual
 feelings of this world. The earth itself
 seemed far away, and he was toiling
 among vastnesses, himself giant with .: immense frame and huge sprawling :: limbs It was like the dreams which come in sleep, when the body is an elu-
 Siye stupendous mass that falls into space after a confused struggle with inn .fnensities. It was all mechanical, vague, e. almost numb-thiS effort to overcome a
 mountain Yet it was precise and hugely
 expert, too; for though there was a :strange mist on the brain the body felt its: way with a singular certainty, as might some molluscan dweller of the sea, which is sensitive like a plant with in- tuition like an animal. Yet sometimes it seemed that this vast body overcoming ;:. the mountain would let go its hold and
 slide away into the darkness of the
 depths. There was a strange, convulsive .-shiver in every nerve
 :: God have mercy, the time was come :now!
 ! No, not yet. At the very instant when it seemed this panting flesh and blood :. would be shaken off by the granite force .repelling it, the fingers like great an-
 tennae touched horns of rock, jutting out
 from lodges, -on the third escarpment of
 the wall Here was the last point of the second and worst stage of the journey
 Slowly, heavily the body drew up to the shelf of limestone, and crouched in an
 inert bundle. There it lay for a long
 time.
 While the long minutes went by
 voice kept calling up from below-call- ing, calling at first eagerly, then anxi-
 ously, then with terror. By and by the
 bundle of life stirred, took shape. raised