Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 275 (Color Image)

0275	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. ix.] ANXIOUS MOMENTS. 229

We slowly edged across the slope after him,

but it was hard to keep cool and steady. From

where we stood we could see nothing over the

end of the slope but the glacier hundreds of

feet below us. Some of the men were so little

nervous that they kicked the fragments of ice

hewed out by Wali down the slope, and laughed

as they saw them hop down it and with one

last bound disappear altogether. But an almost

sickening feeling came on me as I watched

this, for we were standing- on a slope as steep

as the roof of a house. We had no ice-axes

with which to anchor ourselves or give us

support ; and though I tied handkerchiefs, and

the men bits of leather and cloth, round the

insteps of our smooth native boots, to give us

a little grip on the slippery ice, I could not

help feeling that if any one of us had lost his

foothold the rest would never have been able

to hold him up with the rope, and that in all

likelihood the whole party would have been

carried away and plunged into the abyss below.

Outwardly I kept as cool and cheerful as I

could, but inwardly I shuddered at each fresh

step I took. The sun was now pouring down

and just melted the surface of the steps after

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