‘Don’t speak,’ she said hoarsely; ‘it may make his foot slip.’
In a minute he reappeared, having passed through the crevice.
‘Alec, you shouldn’t do a thing like that; it’s a sin to risk your life for nothing,’ said Margaret, in a tone of cold displeasure.
‘There’s not the slightest danger in it,’ protested Alec.
‘None whatever,’ echoed Semple; but he did not think it necessary to prove the truth of his opinion.
‘I think we ought to be off,’ said Alec; ‘there’s a cloud coming right upon us; and if we don’t make haste we shall have to stay here till it passes.’
His meaning was not quite plain to his companions; but they soon saw the force of his remark. They had accomplished but a small part of the descent when they found themselves suddenly in the midst of a cold, thick, white vapour. It was not safe to go on, so the little company crouched together under a boulder, and watched the great wreaths of mist moving in the stillness from crag to crag.
As soon as the mist got a little thinner, they recommenced the descent, for their position was not a very pleasant one. Semple was in front, while Blake and Margaret followed, and Alec and Laura brought up the rear, when it happened that they came to an unusually steep part of the hillside which they thought it best to cross in a slanting direction. The soil was of loose, crumbling stone, with here and there a narrow patch of short, dry grass, and, at intervals, narrow beds or courses of loose stones. A short distance below there was an unbroken precipice of at least five hundred feet.
Alec was helping Laura across one of those narrow beds of stones, the others being some little way in advance, when they were startled by a deep rumbling noise, and a tremulous motion under their feet. The whole layer of stones, loosened by the rain and frost, was sliding down towards the precipice! With a cry Alec hurried his companion on; but her trembling feet could hardly support her. The movement of the stones, slow at first, was becoming faster every moment; and Alec’s only hope lay in crossing them before they were carried down to the edge of the cliff. For a minute it seemed doubtful whether they would be able to cross in time; but Alec succeeded in struggling, along with his half-fainting companion, to the edge of the sliding stones, and placed her, just in time, upon a sloping but solid bank of earth.
In a few minutes more the stones had swept past them, and had disappeared over the cliff.