ON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE 



wards against my travelling box. As I fell I had a 

 glimpse of the drivers leaning heavily back, with 

 heels dug into the snow, straining their utmost to 

 stop the sledge. The whining, frightened dogs were 

 all about us. Julius turned the sledge bodily upside 

 down, to prevent the dogs from running away with 

 it, and then, as I came forward to speak to him, he 

 held up a warning hand. His laconic " Ajorkok " 

 (it cannot be done) was enough ; I knew that we 

 had missed the channel that runs between the 

 shoulders of the summit, and were on the very brink 

 of a slope that runs steeper and ever steeper to end 

 in a sheer precipice, down which we might have 

 fallen headlong. There was a tight feeling in my 

 throat as I drew back from the giddy depth of 

 whirling snowflakes and joined the drivers where 

 they stood by the sledge. It had been a narrow 

 escape. " We must go back," said Julius. " No," 

 said Kristian, " a little further to the left we can get 

 safely down : it is too slow to go back." " Oukagle " 

 (but no), said Julius. " Ahailale " (but yes), said 

 Kristian ; and it looked like the beginning of a 

 quarrel. They appealed to me. " Go back," I said. 

 Kristian heaved the sledge round, and Julius 

 trotted over the sledge crest again, calling " Ha, ha, 

 ha " to the dogs. For a long time I saw no more of 

 him, and more than once Kristian said, " We ought 

 to have gone to the left ; too slow, this." Even the 

 dogs were out of sight ; I could see the long trace 

 slipping over the snow, with now and again a glimpse 

 of the tangled, knotted mass of lines that led away to 

 the dogs. The lines were always tight, and I knew 

 by that that Julius was somewhere ahead, and the 

 dogs were following him. Suddenly he appeared, 



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