It was no spirit of bravado that gave rise to his reckless speech of an

hour previous. It was simply a spontaneous outpouring of his real

nature, an unpremeditated expression of that supreme carelessness with

which he regarded the future, the small value he set on life. He truly

felt as utterly indifferent toward fate as his words signified. Deeply

conscious of a life long ago irretrievably wrecked, everything behind a

chaos, everything before worthless,--for years he had been actually

seeking death; a hundred times he had gladly marked its apparent

approach, a smile of welcome upon his lips. Yet it had never quite

succeeded in reaching him, and nothing had been gained beyond a

reputation for cool, reckless daring, which he did not in the least

covet. But now, miracle of all miracles, just as the end seemed

actually attained, seemed beyond any possibility of being turned aside,

he began to experience a desire to live--he wanted to save this girl.

His keenly observant eyes, trained by the exigencies of his trade to

take note of small things, and rendered eager by this newly awakened

ambition, scanned the cliff towering above them. He perceived the

extreme irregularity of its front, and numerous peculiarities of

formation which had escaped him hitherto. Suddenly his puzzled face

brightened to the birth of an idea. By heavens! it might be done!

Surely it might be done! Inch by inch he traced the obscure passage,

seeking to impress each faint detail upon his memory--that narrow ledge

within easy reach of an upstretched arm, the sharp outcropping of

rock-edges here and there, the deep gash as though some giant axe had

cleaved the stone, those sturdy cedars growing straight out over the

chasm like the bowsprits of ships, while all along the way, irregular

and ragged, varied rifts not entirely unlike the steps of a crazy

staircase.

The very conception of such an exploit caused his flesh to creep. But

he was not of that class of men who fall back dazed before the face of

danger. Again and again, led by an impulse he was unable to resist, he

studied that precipitous rock, every nerve tingling to the newborn

hope. God helping them, even so desperate a deed might be

accomplished, although it would test the foot and nerve of a Swiss

mountaineer. He glanced again uneasily toward his companion, and saw

the same motionless figure, the same sober face turned deliberately

away. Hampton did not smile, but his square jaw set, and he clinched

his hands. He had no fear that she might fall him, but for the first

time in all his life he questioned his own courage.




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