CHAPTER XXXVII.
AT BAY.
Ariel flitted so rapidly along the ledge that her lover felt obliged to ask her to desist, as he found it difficult to keep pace with her.
The narrow path ascended more rapidly than before, and he saw they were steadily climbing toward the top of the roof.

The shelly support to their feet, too, became less substantial, crumbling and giving way at a rate that threatened the most serious consequences.
He again cautioned the maiden, who seemed to dart over the rocky ground with the graceful ease of a bird, and without producing any more effect, with her dainty sandals.
Suddenly she paused.

She had reached the margin or break in the ledge.
A chasm, whose black depths the eye could not fathom, yawned between her and the support on the opposite side.
"We will make our stand here," said he; "keep behind me--" He checked himself in astonishment; for, at that moment, she bounded as lightly across as a fawn.

He never would have permitted it had he dreamed of her intention; but it was done.
He could only follow, and, gathering his muscles, he ran rapidly the slight distance and bounded from the support.
It was a tremendous leap, and, for one instant, he believed he would fail; but he cleared the chasm of breathless darkness and landed on the edge, where, for a single second, he tottered between life and death.
But, at the critical instant, a tiny hand was outstretched, and, seizing one of the fluttering arms, his poise was restored, and he stood firmly by her side.
Even then, as he stepped forward, the ground crumbled and gave way for fully two feet, the debris rattling down the abyss as long as the ear could detect the sound, growing fainter and fainter as it hastened toward the far-away bottom.
"There is no one in that party except Ziffak who can leap it now," said Ashman, gazing with a shudder behind him.
By this time the pursuers were close at hand and gaining fast.
The ledge led straight away and upward for a hundred feet, when it terminated at a point in the dome as high as the middle portion.

There the rocks were piled in irregular masses, and, knowing they could go no further, Ashman resolved that the last stand should be made there.
As he hurried onward, another shout fell upon his ear.