QWone 



of this shattered missile struck my left instep, 

 breaking one of the small bones. 



Fortunately my foot was resting in the mud 

 when struck. When consciousness came back 

 to me I was lying in the mud and snow, drenched, 

 mud-bespattered, and cold. The rain and snow 

 had almost ceased to fall, and while I was band- 

 aging my foot the pale light of day began to 

 show feebly through heavy clouds. If that lum- 

 inous place is in the eastern horizon, then I have 

 lost my sense of direction. An appeal to the 

 compass brought no consolation, for it said 

 laconically, "Yes, you are turned around now, 

 even though you never were before." The accu- 

 racy of the compass was at once doubted, 

 but its decree was followed. 



Slowly, painfully, the slippery, snowy steeps 

 were scaled beneath a low, gloomy sky. My 

 plan was to cross the north shoulder of Mt. Cox- 

 comb and then down slope and gulch descend 

 to the deeply filled alluvium Uncompahgre val- 

 ley and the railroad village of Ridgway. With 

 the summit only a few feet above, the wall be- 

 came so steep and the hold so insecure that it 



233 



