180 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



heels of his boots scraping against the rock, and he was 

 too busy to afford me any advice or assistance except by 

 holding the rope tight whenever I asked him to do so. 



My axe, which was slung on to my arm, swung about 

 confoundedly ; the iron part pecked at my face, and 

 the wooden became entangled with my legs, In some 

 way or another I managed to ascend this piece, and 

 reached a spot where a few inches of protruding rock 

 admitted of a short halt, during which I took breath 

 with much satisfaction, but at each gasp the notes of 

 the tune I had heard in town still issued from my chest 

 against my will. 



Our route was growing more and more difficult. 

 We had emerged from the chimney by which we had 

 ascended the first 100 feet or so, and the slight 

 assistance its sides had afforded us* was now at an end. 

 We were now on the rounded face of the cliff, and we 

 were ascending the vertical route indicated to us by the 

 great rope. T was suffering from, a mad desire to call 

 out to Antoine and ask him how things were going, but 

 I dared not. And there, last on our rope, all alone 

 (for so I seemed to be) I swung from side to side 

 as I ascended by means of struggles, contortions, and 

 efforts of which I should have thought myself incapable. 

 My hands tightly gripped the rope and struck violently 

 against the rock, my feet kicked uncertainly in space, 

 and from my lips there issued terrijble curses at every 

 blow I received. My hands were ungloved and numb 

 with the cold, and I remember relinquishing the rope 

 first with one and then with the other in order to 

 bring them to my mouth and warm them with my 

 breath ; then up again with both hands, and another 

 step was won. 



