New Britain herald., 1923-09-19
Al yeur druggist

feet wide at this point, and looking
 along, he saw that a hundred yard.
 10 his right il ended in snawha nk
 Rui there was no need af following
 Il down, He could lean il at 4 stand.
 ing tumni with running start he could hound len feet beyond.
 lie was tired, eager ta gel to camp and this was the zero hour, He drew hack three naess. preparatory 10 making the lean.
 All the wilderness world seemed 10 he straining-listening. The man ieaned forward
 At that instant the North gave him some sign of its power. His first running step WAS firm. hut Ht the second his moeeasin failed 10 hold. slipping straight back. He pitched forward on his hands and knees. grasping at the hard slippery Ice.
 He slid rather slowly. with that siekening helplessness that so often charaeterizes the events Of tragic dream: and the wilderness seemed stili to he waiting. watching. in nn- ntterable indifference. Then, he pitched forward Into the creyice.
 He was not to die al once. There was still hope of life. He fetched ,is. as If by miracle. on an icy shelf ten feet below the mouth of the crew iee-with sheer walls rising on each side.
 xNIy.
 Ned knew what fear was. well enough. as he lay in the darkened chasm. staring up at the white line Of the crevice above him.
 The shelf on which he had fallen was scarcely wider than his body. and only because 1t projected at an upward incline from the sheer wall had he come to rest upon 1t. It was perhaps 90 feet long, practically on Il level all the way. The wall was sheer for ten feet above him; beyond he shelf was only the impenetrable parently into the bowels of the earth.
 Very cautiously. in imminent dan ger of pitching backward into the abyss. he climbed to his feet. He | was a tall man, but his hands, reach l ng up, did not come within two feet ! ,f the ledge. And there was nothing ! whatever for his hands to cling to. i
 If only there were irregularities in he ice. With surge of hope he | thought of his axe.
 This tool, however, had either fal- en into the crevice or had dropped rom his shoulder and lay on the ice lbove. But there remained his clasp snife. He drew 1t carefully from his pocket.
 Already he felt the icy chill of the .lacier stealing through him, the cold fingers of death itself. He must ose no time in going to work. He egan to cut, two feet above the ledge,
 sharp edged hole in the ice
 He finished the cut at last, then tarted on another foot above. He ewed out a foothold with great care.
 He did not forget that the hand olds, to which his fingers must cling, 1ere yet to be made. They had to e finished with even greater skill han the footholds. Very wisely, he urned to them next
 He made the first of them as high s he could reach. Then he put one l about foot below. Three more ootholds were put in at about 12- lch intervals between.
 Placing the knife between his teeth, c put his moccasin into the first ,othold and pulled himself up.
 It did not take long, however to ,nvince him that the remaining ork bordered practically on the im- ossible. These holes in the ice were ot like irregularities in stone. The ngers slipped over them; 1t was al ost impossible to cling on with both ands, much less one. But clinging ith all his might. he tried to free s right hand to procure his knife. He made it at last, and at fright l cost of nervous energy succeeded
 cutting some sort of gash in the y wall above his head. Standing
 close he could not look up, it was possible to do more than hack out ragged hole. And because life lay is way and no other, he put the ade once more between his teeth, ached his right hand into the hole, d tried to pull himself up again. But disaster, bitter and complete, flowed that attempt. His numbing nds failed to hold under the strain, d he slipped all the way back to ; shelf. Something rang sharply ainst the ice wall. far below him.