The Mountaineer 105 



on the ice field when they encountered a blind crevasse, 

 completely hidden under a frail bridge of snow. The 

 first warning came when the Doctor, with Mrs. Davis 

 and Marjorie, sank suddenly into the snow. As Mrs. 

 Davis was going down, she clutched desperately at 

 the edge of the crevasse and succeeded in getting 

 hold of a projection, to which she clung with the 

 strength borne of sudden terror. A moment later she 

 made a successful effort to draw herself up out of the 

 snow, in which she was immersed to her neck. Ifi some 

 unexplained manner she also pulled Dr. Lauman out, 

 he being unable to help himself. 



But in the meantime Marjorie had disappeared. She 

 had broken completely through the snow bridge and 

 shot down into the dark depths below. For thirty-five 

 feet she descended at a swift pace, rolling, falling and 

 tumbling from side to side, in the narrow crevasse, until 

 finally she brought up with a hard bump upon a pro- 

 jecting ledge of ice, which made the crevasse too nar- 

 row for her body to pass through. But the feet and 

 limbs did jam their way down and were immersed in 

 ice water from the glacier. 



Had it not been for the ledge on which she so fortu- 

 nately lodged, just above the surface of the water, Mar- 

 jorie would probably have been drowned. The water 

 undoubtedly extended for a considerable depth below, 

 as subsequent investigations showed. 



All around the prisoner in the ice was a dark green 

 wall, closing in upon her on all sides, while from far 

 above came down the faint rays of light from the out- 

 side world. 



To say that Marjorie was startled would be putting 

 it very mildly. She was scared, and scared badly, but 

 never for a moment did she lose her presence of mind. 

 Most girls would probably have gone off into a dead 

 swoon, as the result of terror. 



