It was evident that the glacier, into the recesses of which we had penetrated, and on the edge of which the ruined temple hung, was a branch of the one we had crossed an hour or two back. Amidst this identical chaos of boulders we had watched the wounded beast disappear, and from some unseen cave or cranny he might now be spying us with gloating eyes. I stared round me apprehensively, but nothing moved to break the long waste of gray rock and virgin ice. I turned to explain my discovery to my companions.
It did not take them long to recognize the familiar landmarks when I pointed them out, and they at once agreed with me that it was useless to carry further our quest for a beach. It was borne upon us with great conviction that the cliff barrier here stood just as remorselessly between us and the sea as it did on the western side of our lake. We might, therefore, as well give up at once all thought of launching our boat in the ordinary manner. With the endless line of crags stretching for miles in either direction, it but remained to essay the lowering of it by davits or windlasses down the precipice, to chance its escaping uncrushed by the floating floe. For the present we set gloomily back across the glacier to carry news of our discovery to our friends.
We roped up as we left the cliffs, proceeding gingerly upon our way. The crevasses honeycombed the ice at every step; some we bridged with our poles; some we jumped unhandily; some, too broad for either leaping or bridging, we rounded by circuitous ways which took us far out of our dead point for home. At this height upon the glacier slopes we found the passage far more difficult and broken than upon the lower levels we had crossed in the earlier morning.
It was after a couple of hours of hard work, that, with red and glistening faces, we found ourselves within a few score feet of the further side. We stopped to mop our streaming brows and to congratulate ourselves on the conclusion of the hardest part of our labors. I produced my flask, at which the others smiled approvingly.
I took an inspiriting pull, handing it on to Garlicke, who was roped between Gerry and myself. He took it with unfeigned gratitude, and sucked at it sensuously, bestowing a wink at Gerry over the rim. The latter observed him earnestly as the flask tipped gradually higher, and then, dropping his axe upon the ice, strode towards his friend with a very unbenignant air and an outstretched hand. The axe fell with its point buried in the rough surface at Garlicke’s feet; the blade on the opposite side of the handle was uppermost.
“Kindly leave a saltspoonful,” said Gerry irritably. “I happen to be just about as thirsty as you.”
Garlicke turned slowly, the bottle still glued to his lips. He winked again with an indescribably annoying slyness. Gerry—with a touch of temper, it must be owned—snatched at his hand. Garlicke, with mock ferocity, warded him off.
There was a crackling sound as Gerry’s foot burst in an ice-bubble, and he stumbled. He rocked forward to fall prone beside a crevasse edge. The tense cord fell dead upon the keen blade of the axe set so rigidly uppermost.
There was a hum and a flick as the rope parted, the two released ends springing apart like rent elastic. Gerry gave a wild scrabble at the glass-like, elusive surface, and shot like a flash into the yawning gap. There was a yell and a fierce rush from Garlicke, and I instinctively dug my heels into a crevice, bracing myself starkly to meet his sudden pull. I thrust my own axe-point into the ice, buttressing myself upon it. But for this three bodies would have been racing into the womb of the ice-hill instead of one.
A dull thud came echoing up from the dark shadows beneath us; a few glassy splinters crackled and pattered downward; then came a silence broken only by the throb of our pulses as they sang dull and muffled in our ears.