Part 12 (1/2)

All of a sudden soave way One moment oing--going Still, with consuht All in vain He could not recover his lost footing He was sliding with increased ht

Mona's blood turned to ice within her She was too stricken even to shriek, in the unspeakable horror of the round, instinctively clenched, as she lay there, gazing down, an appalled and powerless spectator

He, for his part, did not look up The dust and stones slid in streae into space--then his descent stopped He see for all he kne And then, as if to add to the gloomy depression of this horrible peril, there stole up a dark, s around the suht as of fear and disaster Mona found her voice

”Oh, try and rest a little while and collect yourself,” she said; ”then make another attempt!”

”I can't er I believethe torments of hell”

Mona was alrave was in a bad way indeed when such an adive up!” she cried, in a wail of despairing tenderness, such as had never been wrung from her lips before ”Make one more effort; this time, because _I_ ask you A yard or two more, and I shall be able to reach you”

Was this the woaze over the brink, and had quickly retreated with a shudder? Now, as she lay there, extending her aro, in order to afford hirasp, all fear on her own behalf seeainst the face of the cliff with the dead eagle slung to his back, seemed not able to move, and as she had said, it was but a yard or two farther

But the effort le It was o again

”Hold it! hold it!” cried Mona, appalled by the ahiteness which had spread over his face, evoked as it was by the agony he was suffering

”No, I won't, I should only drag you down”

”You would not I am very firm up here,” she replied ”I can hold you till--till help coher, then with his uninjured hand he grasped hers A sick faintness cao round

The brink of the cliff, the brave, eager face and love-lit eyes, the swaying grass bents, now rimy with misty scud, all danced before his vision He felt cold as ice, that deathly nu, warrave's days were numbered Well indeed was it for him, that the splendid frame of its oas not merely the perfection of feminine symmetry, but encased a very considerable !” she h h you had not, if you prefer it”

It was a strange love- certain death, the other raised entirely out of her physical fears, resolute to save this life, which after allto her Thus they faced each other, and the dark whirling blackness of the gloo cloud lowered thicker and thicker around theasped forth wearily, in his seo!”

She alhtened upon his hand fir to shout Perhaps Charlie will hear” And lifting up her voice she sent forth a long, clear, ringing call; then another and another

No answer

Then, as the h Mona's brave heart Strong as she was, she could not hold hiony of his broken wrist, to raise himself any farther Her brain reeled Wild-eyed with despair she strove to pierce the opaque grey curtain which was crusting her face and hair with rime

It inter, and this table-topped mountain was of considerable elevation What if this thick chill cloud was the precursor of a heavy snowfall? Charlie, acting on the idea that they had one ho The strain was ain she sent forth her loud, clear call, this ti with a fearful note of despair

It was answered Eagerly, breathlessly she listened Yes--it came from below the cliff Charlie had arrived at the spot where they had left their horses She shouted again The answer told that he was cliully by which they had ascended

”Do you hear that? We are safe now A few minutes more, and Charlie will be here”