While my men were busy constructing the cairn I did a very foolish thing. From our pinnacle down to the glacier below in a vertical [[95]]line was a drop of some 6500 feet, and for some reason or other I took it into my head to go and sit on the edge and dangle my legs over the precipice. You see, one does not always have an opportunity of having so much room to dangle one’s legs and feet in! In order to avoid accidents I knocked off some of the surface snow and then, helped by one of my men—who entered fully into the humour of the situation—I sat myself down.
I was gaily kicking my feet about, when my man shouted that the ice and rock were giving way from under me. Before I had time to get up from my unpleasant position the fellow had pluck and sense enough to try and reach over, seizing me firmly by the wrist, and as the rock and ice and snow went from under, not only were my legs dangling over the precipice, but my whole body was suspended in mid-air.
It seems that in his efforts to save me I might have dragged the man down as well, had it not been for the presence of mind of a third fellow who interrupted the construction of our cairn and seized my saviour by the legs. After some dangling about—which seemed to last a very long time—they eventually pulled me up. [[96]]
Now, had those men been English or Scotch or Irish or French, this incident might have supplied them with some excitement and a topic of conversation for some time. But no; the man B, who had caught me in the first instance, felt with his foot a spot where the snow seemed firm enough, and he placidly remarked: “Sit down here, Sahib, this will not give way,” and he sat himself down as if nothing had happened, while the man C resumed the construction of the cairn without any comment.
My heart thumped a good deal from the sudden jerk—not to speak of the prospect of the unexpected flight—but on feeling myself all over and finding that I had not lost anything from my pockets, nor my straw hat, I soon felt quite happy again. A glance at the two sketches illustrating this incident will, I think, give a clearer idea of the situation than the description.
Within an Ace of being precipitated some 6500 feet on to the Glacier below
We remained about an hour on our lofty pinnacle, the temperature in the sun being 70°, and then we made our way down. Holding one another by the hand we slid down the steep incline at a precipitous pace. The distance which had taken us hours of toiling and panting in our ascent, only took us a very short time in [[97]]the descent. A thick mist was coming on and my men were most anxious to get down quick.
We were sliding down at a terrific rate, using our feet as brakes to control the velocity when it got too dangerous. We eventually found ourselves again on the loose débris and here, too, we went down several yards at each step, carrying down with us a mass of loose stones—a regular land-slide—which rolled right down to the bottom with tremendous fracas.
As we got lower, we all felt notable relief in breathing, and we halted for a few minutes to pick up the men we had left below. They had obtained a good rest, and were feeling better.