Suddenly, however, it narrowed; Hine became conscious of appalling depths on either side of him; it narrowed with extraordinary rapidity; half a dozen paces behind him he had been walking on a broad smooth path; now he walked on the width of the top of a garden wall.

His knees began to shake; he halted; he reached out vainly into emptiness for some support on which his shaking hands might clutch.

And then in front of him he saw Garratt Skinner sit down and bestride the wall.

Over Garratt Skinner's head, he now saw the path by which he needs must go.

He was on the famous ice-ridge; and nothing so formidable, so terrifying, had even entered into his dreams during his sleep upon the rocks where he had bivouacked.