182 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



to hold him firm,, seized the rope in his teeth, thus 

 freeing his hands, threw himself on the unstable mass, 

 and held it in place with his hands, and this piece of 

 work cost him a tooth. 



And when I think again of all we went through 

 during those hours, of those men who worked with 

 such steady courage for my victory, it seems to me 

 that their self-sacrifice that day had something sublime 

 in it ; I feel that the confidence they had in me must 

 have been unbounded for them to have ventured into 

 such a place, that it must have been equal to the faith 

 I had in them. And for this their faith in me I shall 

 be for ever grateful. But up there I looked differently 

 upon these two who climbed above me, who did not 

 speak to me, and who went up impossible places. I 

 thought then that they were two fiends who were in- 

 exorably dragging me bound to an unknown destiny. 



Whither were those desperate men about to take 

 me? My only comfort lay in the thought that down 

 below, only a few miles away, Antoine had a dear 

 young wife who had bidden him farewell but twenty- 

 four hours before and two fine children, to whom I 

 had given some sweets the previous day on my way 

 through Cr6pin. 



And for the youthful Aime*, too, I thought some 

 maiden's heart was beating down in the valley with 

 apprehension for his safety. 



For ten to twenty minutes I rested, standing upright 

 on a tiny platform without relinquishing my grasp of 

 the great rope, and then I heard a laconic ' Venez ! ' 

 and I started upwards once more, with my face turned 

 towards the mountain. * What in Heaven's name are 

 you at up there? ' I shouted. A small stone had been 



