minutes they were making their way cautiously down the rope-ladder one
after the other, the baronet, an experienced mountaineer, leading, and
Mildmay bringing up the rear.
The adventurers soon found that their task was likely to be a great deal
more difficult and hazardous than they had at all contemplated. The
snow-bank upon which the _Flying Fish_ rested proved to be the only even
approximately level spot at that elevation; the rocks rising almost
sheer above them everywhere, with only an occasional crevice here and
there by way of foothold, and in many places the precipice was coated
with treacherous frozen snow, sometimes tenacious enough to afford a
momentary support, but more often crumbling away beneath the weight of
the body. Slowly and steadily, however, they worked their way upward--
now occupying perhaps five minutes to advance as many feet, and anon
hitting upon a favourable spot where twenty or thirty feet might be
gained in a single minute. At length, after a toilsome and hazardous
climb of more than an hour's duration, the baronet found himself
clinging to a slender pinnacle of rock about seven feet high and four
feet in diameter, upon the top of which he next moment triumphantly
seated himself. The colonel, the professor, and Mildmay speedily
followed, and there they sat, undoubtedly the first human beings who had
ever reached the topmost pinnacle of Mount Everest.
Having accomplished the ascent, they now settled themselves down as
comfortably as they could upon their narrow perch to enjoy at leisure
the magnificent view spread out around them, a view such as no human eye
had ever before looked upon, and which even _they_ would probably never
have another opportunity of beholding. The atmosphere, most
fortunately, was exceptionally clear and transparent, not a vestige of
cloud or vapour being anywhere visible; the view was therefore
unobstructed to the very verge of the horizon, which extended round them
in a gigantic circle measuring _four hundred and eighteen miles in
diameter_.
Northward of them stretched the vast plains of Thibet, the only object
worthy of notice being the river Sampoo, which, although sixty miles
distant, was distinctly seen as it issued from the purplish-grey haze of
the extreme distance on their left, meandering along the plain beneath
for a visible distance of nearly two hundred miles before its course
became again lost in the haze on their right hand. Eight and left of
them stretched the vast mountain chain of the Himalayas, their wooded
slopes and countless peaks and cones presenting a bewildering yet
charming picture of variegated colour, sunlight and shadow, as they
dwindled away on either hand until all suggestion of local colouring was
swallowed up and lost in an enchanting succession of increasingly pure
and delicate soft pearly greys, which merged and melted at last into the
vague shapeless all-pervading purple-grey of the horizon. Glancing
immediately around and beneath them their blood curdled and their brains
whirled with the vertigo which seized them as they peered appalled and
shrinkingly down upon the sharp crags, the sheer precipices, the
steeply-sloping snow-fields with their lower edges generally overhanging
some fathomless abyss, the great glaciers, the awful crevasses spanned
here and there by crumbling snow bridges--the effect of the scene being
heightened and intensified in its impressive grandeur by the deathlike
silence which prevailed, broken only by the occasional thunderous roar
of an avalanche far below. The scene was absolutely fascinating in its
appalling sublimity; but it was a relief to turn the eye further afield
until it rested to the eastward upon the grandly towering mass of
Everest's rival, snow-capped Kunchinjinga, which reared its giant crest
aloft to a height of twenty-eight thousand five hundred feet above the
sea-level, and which, though it was eighty-five miles away, appeared to
be almost within rifle-shot. And still more was it a relief to turn the
eye in an opposite direction, and to allow it to rest upon the
glittering summit of Dhawalagiri, which, at a distance of no less than
_two hundred and forty miles_, gleamed faint and softly opalescent out
of the western haze. And, lastly, to the southward of them they beheld
the fertile province of Nepaul, watered by countless tributaries to the
mighty Ganges; and, beyond it again, the still more fertile province of
Oudh. The professor, totally forgetful of his exceedingly perilous
position, was enthusiastically expatiating, after his usual manner, upon
the marvellous extent and beauty of the prospect, and interrupting the
flow of his eloquence at short intervals to assure his companions that
a--to them--invisible object on the far horizon _must_ be the town of
Patna, when a terrific crackling crash just below them drew the eyes of
the party in that direction, just in time for them to see the supposed
projecting crag--in reality an enormous mass of ice--which supported the
snow-bank on which the _Flying Fish_ rested, break off and go thundering
down into the unfathomable depths below. The spectators clung to each
other in helpless nerveless terror at so appalling a spectacle as the
falling of this mass, weighing probably millions of tons; but the full
significance and import of the catastrophe did not present itself to
their dazed and bewildered senses until they beheld the _Flying Fish_,
after following the falling mass for a couple of hundred feet, recover
herself and float jauntily in the air, _adrift_, at a distance of fully
two thousand feet from the mountain side. Then, indeed, the full horror
of their position began to slowly dawn upon them, and they looked at
each other with eyes in which could be read a despair too deep and too
complete to need or find expression in words. Their long search for a
landing-place that morning had unconsciously impressed upon them a fact
which now--and not till now--took intelligible shape within their
brains, and it was this: they could descend the mountain as far as the
spot at which they had left the _Flying Fish, but no further_; beyond
that point further descent, with the means at their disposal, was
impossible. Which meant, in plain language and few words, that, sooner
or later, they would try to get down, and either be dashed to pieces in
the attempt or perish miserably of starvation upon the edge of some
ghastly impassable precipice.
It took but a moment for these ideas to shape themselves intelligibly,
and then a general movement was made to commence the descent and thus
cut short a state of suspense which would soon become unbearable.
But at this moment the colonel interposed with a word of caution.
"One moment," said he. "Before we start let each one of us clearly
understand that perfect coolness and presence of mind is imperatively
necessary if we would emerge from this strait alive. We _may_ perhaps
find a way down after all, but in order to do so we must have our wits
completely about us; let no man move, therefore, until he has fully
recovered the control of his nerves; when all have done so we will make
a start, and I will go last."
"And I first," exclaimed the baronet, "because, next to you, I believe I
am the most experienced mountaineer of the party."
The colonel's little speech produced a most beneficial effect upon the
nerves of the whole party, his own included; and now, without further
ado, a general start was made, the baronet going first and directing and
helping the professor, who followed him; Mildmay going third, also
helping von Schalckenberg, and being helped in his turn by Lethbridge,
and the latter bringing up the rear.
The descent, owing to the perpendicular precipices over which they had
to pass, and the extremely dangerous character, generally, of the road,
proved to be even more tedious and difficult than the ascent; and within
the first quarter of an hour (during which they had accomplished only
about one hundred feet of perpendicular descent) every one of the party
had experienced at least one narrow escape from certain death.
Steadily, however, they toiled on; foot by foot they crept down the face
of the icy precipice, and at length they reached a ledge nearly a foot
in width, upon which the entire party were enabled to pause for a minute
or two to rest and relieve their tired and quivering muscles.
When their feet were safely planted upon this ledge Mildmay spoke.
"I may now venture," he said, "to call your attention to a fact which I
feared to mention before, lest it should upset the balance of your
nerves and produce a catastrophe. It is this. The _Flying Fish_,
floating undisturbed in this motionless air, is, in obedience to the law
of gravitation, slowly but steadily being drawn in toward the side of
the mountain; and if--which God grant--it remains perfectly calm up here
for another quarter of an hour, she will be once more alongside, and we
may yet regain access to her. To do this, however, we must edge away
more toward the eastern side of the mountain, where I fear we shall
encounter even greater difficulties than we have yet met with. We can
but try, however, and I think the sooner we push on the better."
"Forward, then, at once," cried the baronet; "and take heed to your
steps, my friends, for this ice is terribly smooth and slippery."
Once more was the journey resumed, the baronet availing himself of the
ledge, as far as it extended, to work his way round the shoulder of the
hill in the required direction; and by the time they reached a point
where actual descent had again become necessary, they had once more come
within sight of the ship, and had the satisfaction of seeing that she
had drawn sensibly nearer to the cliff.
"All right," exclaimed Sir Reginald cheerfully, "I see the spot we must
aim for--that pinnacle of bare rock yonder, and there is a tolerably
easy road down to it, moreover."
Away they now went, their spirits at the very highest pitch of
exhilaration, and their nerves by so much the steadier, and such rapid
progress did they make that ten minutes later saw them clustered
together clinging to the rocky pinnacle before mentioned. And a
gruesome-enough looking spot it was--a sharp projecting point of rock
overhanging a sheer precipice some two hundred feet deep, with a narrow
snow-bank immediately beneath, and then another frightful abyss of
unknown depth beyond. And, to the right and left of it, an almost
vertical face of bare rock coated with smooth, slippery, transparent
ice, any attempt to traverse which would be courting death in its most
horrible form.
The _Flying Fish_ seemed to be drifting steadily in toward this pinnacle
of rock, though at a depth of some twenty feet below it, and it was
resolved to pause there and allow events to develop somewhat before
exerting themselves further.
Slowly, very slowly, the _Flying Fish_ drifted nearer and nearer in; the
little party clustered upon the rock watching her with bated breath, and
every moment dreading that a faint air of wind might after all waft her
beyond their reach. But nothing of the sort occurred; in she steadily
came, until at last her starboard gangway was immediately underneath the
party.
"Now or never!" exclaimed Sir Reginald. "I am going to make a jump for
her. We shall scarcely have a better chance; and breeze may at any
moment sweep round the face of the rock and carry her away from us.
Lethbridge and Mildmay, let me steady myself by your shoulders whilst I
stand on the extreme point of the rock. Stand firm, now; I am about to
jump. Are you ready? Then--one--_two_--THREE!"
The body of the baronet darted outward from the face of the rock,
Mildmay and the colonel retaining their footing with the utmost
difficulty under the recoil from the outward impulse; and then the three
men left behind on the rock craned their necks over the precipice to
watch the result.
The sight which met their eyes caused their hair to bristle and their
blood to curdle with horror. Sir Reginald had either miscalculated his
distance, or his foot had slipped in the act of springing, for instead
of alighting upon the ship's deck, as he had intended, he had fallen on
the circular bilge of the vessel, from whence, after an unavailing
struggle to secure a footing, he slid off, and, with a piercing scream,
went whirling downward until he alighted on the narrow snow-bank some
two hundred feet below. His horror-stricken companions fully expected
to see him rebound and go plunging over the edge of the next precipice,
but luckily the snow upon which he had fallen was so deep that his body
sank into it, and there he lay, motionless.
"Merciful Heaven, he is killed!" ejaculated the colonel with stammering
lips.
"Perhaps not," returned Mildmay; "at all events we will hope for the
best. Let me see if I can do better. _Quick_--out of the way--ah! The
wind after all! We are too late!"
And even as he spoke the bows of the _Flying Fish_ swung slowly round,
and her hull was swept gently away from the face of the cliff by a
capricious zephyr which just then came creeping along the mountain side.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
HOW THE ADVENTURE TERMINATED.
The silence of despair again settled upon the three remaining
travellers; they had lost one of their party, and were a second time
left stranded upon that terrible mountain top, from which it now began
to appear that there was no possibility of escape. One thing at least
was certain, which was, that on their side of the mountain there was no
means of further descent; the pinnacle of rock upon which they then
stood was the lowest accessible point; there was no possible way even of
reaching poor Sir Reginald's body, and the way downward, if indeed such
existed, must be sought elsewhere.
They crouched where they were, in helpless bewilderment, watching the
ship until she slowly drifted out of sight round a projecting bluff; and
then, in a dazed, halfhearted way, and with nerves all unstrung by
disappointment and the dreadful accident which had befallen the baronet,
they began to slowly retrace their steps, in the faint hope of stumbling
upon some means of escape.
Led this time by the colonel, Mildmay bringing up the rear, the little
party at last made their way back to the narrow ledge where they had
previously paused to rest, and here they again made a momentary halt,
afterwards following the ledge in the other direction until it
terminated abruptly in an almost perpendicular wall of smooth rock.
Another ledge was here discovered, about eighteen feet further down, but
it was certainly not more than a foot wide, with apparently a vertical
fall of several hundred feet beyond. This ledge extended right and left
beyond their range of vision, and had evidently been traversed by them
in their original ascent, for their footprints were plainly visible in
the snow with which it was covered; if, therefore, they could reach it,
it would at least be possible to return to their original starting-
point, which would certainly be something gained. But how to get down
to it was the question. They had grown bewildered in their gropings
round about the summit, and knew not in which direction to go to regain
the lost path. They might, of course, go on climbing until they were
once more at the very top of the mountain, and commence their descent
afresh, but this was a task so full of difficulty and peril as not to be
thought of, save as a last resort. Besides, the day was already on the
wane, and it was of the utmost importance that they should reach some
place of comparative safety before nightfall. At length Mildmay hit
upon a bold though terribly dangerous mode of mastering the difficulty.
"Look here," he said, "it is no use hesitating here; we shall never do
any good at this rate. Let me offer a suggestion. I will lower myself
down over the ledge until I hang from it by my hands alone; then you,
Lethbridge, must climb down over me, using my body as a ladder (or a
rope, rather), and when you are hanging at arm's-length from my feet
there will only remain a very trifling drop to the lower ledge, which
you can surely accomplish in safety. That done you must stand by to
steady me and prevent me, if possible, from going backward over the
precipice; and, with us two safely on the ledge, we are surely men
enough to catch the professor when he makes the drop. What say you to
the plan?"
"It is frightfully dangerous, but it is perhaps worth trying--if you
think you have the strength for it. What say you, professor? Have you
nerve enough to make the drop, trusting to us to catch you?"
"Anything is better than this," answered the professor. "Your own and
Mildmay's are the most difficult portions of the task. If you are equal
to your parts I will perform mine; but my strength is not sufficient to
justify my offering to change places with either of you."
"Then let us try it," exclaimed the colonel decisively. "Will you go
first, Mildmay, or shall I?"
"You go first," answered Mildmay. "I am pretty strong in the arms, and
think the method I have proposed the safest, on the whole."
"All right, then. I am ready whenever you are."
"Stand firm, then, and let me steady myself down over the ledge by your
leg--we shall be down, one way or another, all the sooner. Now, look
out, I am going!"
The colonel braced himself as firmly as possible against the strain, and
Mildmay lowered himself cautiously down until he hung from the ledge by
both hands. Then, without wasting a moment, Lethbridge carefully placed
himself in position, got down on his knees, lowered one foot until it
rested on Mildmay's shoulder, then the other; firmly grasped the ledge
with both hands, outside Mildmay's; got his knees down on Mildmay's
shoulders, and then, warning the lieutenant to hold firm, grasped him by
both wrists and proceeded as rapidly and carefully as possible to slide
down his body until he hung to him by a firm hand-grasp round the
ankles. The muscles of poor Mildmay's hands and arms quivered and
fairly cracked with the terrible strain thrown upon them during the
latter part of this manoeuvre; but he set his teeth hard, remembering
that the lives of the whole party depended upon him just then, and hung
on. It was not for long. The colonel paused only for a moment to give
one downward glance at the spot upon which he was about to drop, and
then let go. He pitched fairly on the ledge, slipped, staggered for a
moment, _almost_ went over, but recovered himself and stood firm. Then
moving a little to one side he prepared to receive Mildmay, and gave him
the word to drop. It came none too soon, for the lieutenant's quivering
muscles were already failing him, his nerveless fingers were already
relaxing their grasp, and he felt that he must let go, whether or not,
in another moment. At the cry from Lethbridge he released his hold, and
next moment, with the colonel's arm thrown firmly round his waist, stood
safely on the ledge.
It was next the professor's turn; but now that the critical moment had
arrived for him too to drop from one ledge to another, the unwelcome
discovery was made that his nerves were unequal to the task, and for
some time persuasion, cajolery, entreaties, and threats proved equally
unavailing to tempt him to the enterprise. At length, however, in a fit
of desperation he essayed the task, hurried over it, missed his hold,
and went whirling outward from the face of the cliff. In another
instant he would have been over the precipice, and plunging headlong
downward to the death which awaited him thousands of feet below, but
most fortunately both Mildmay and the colonel saw the mishap, and made a
simultaneous snatch at him; the former succeeded in grasping him by the
arm, and, before either of the trio had time to fully realise what had
actually happened, poor von Schalckenberg was dragged--pale, breathless,
and completely unnerved--in upon the ledge.
A few minutes were allowed the unhappy professor in which to recover his
presence of mind, and then the little party cautiously worked their way
downward along the ledge, finally arriving half an hour later on the
narrow platform of ice which was now all that remained of the plateau
whereon the _Flying Fish_ had been grounded.
It had been the intention of the unfortunate adventurers to make a
temporary halt here, for the purpose of recruiting their exhausted
energies so far as it might be done by taking a few minutes' rest, but
the ice was so shivered by the shock of its recent rupture as to present
a very insecure appearance, and they were therefore constrained to keep
moving notwithstanding their fatigue. Very fortunately the breaking
away of the snow-bank had, in one place, laid bare the surface of the
rock, which here was very jagged and uneven (which would probably
account for the original accumulation of the snow in that spot), and
these irregularities were promptly utilised as a means of further
descent. By their aid an additional two hundred feet of downward
movement was slowly and painfully accomplished, and then Mildmay (who
was now leading the way) found himself within a foot or two of the lower
edge of an almost perpendicular slope overhanging an awful abyss of
unfathomable depth, his further progress downward being barred by the
fact that beneath him the rock sloped _inwards_! A single downward
glance sufficed not only to reveal to him his appalling situation, but
also to wring from his lips such a piercing cry of horror as effectually
warned his friends from following him any further. Then he pressed his
body close to the face of the rock, and clung there convulsively with
feet and hands to the trifling irregularities of surface which alone
afforded him a hold, his blood curdling and his brain reeling at the
thought of the horrible deadly danger which menaced him. A single slip
of hand or foot, a momentary failure of a muscle, the slightest seizure
of cramp or vertigo, and he would go whirling headlong downward at least
five hundred feet sheer through the air before reaching the ground
below. He was so unnerved that he was actually incapable of replying to
the colonel's anxious hail as to what was the matter.
It was whilst he stood thus vainly striving to recover his self-
control--a growing conviction of the impossibility of escape meanwhile
forcing itself with momentarily increasing intensity upon him--that a
huge moving mass suddenly swung into view round a projection on his
left, and a simultaneous cry of surprise from his two waiting and
wondering companions told that they too had caught sight of it. It was
the _Flying Fish_ slowly drifting round the mountain, stern on, and that
too so closely that her propeller actually touched the rocky projection,
some thirty feet off, as she passed it. The force of the contact,
though very gentle, was sufficient to give her a slight outward impulse;
and though she continued to drift round toward the rock to which the
adventurers were clinging, it appeared as though she would pass it at
such a distance as would _just_ preclude the possibility of their
reaching her.
"We must shout," exclaimed Mildmay, finding his voice all at once; "we
must shout to George. Perhaps our cries may reach him and bring him on
deck, in which event we shall be able to tell him what to do."