Short Stories

Stories

Previous Stories (40) | Next Stories (42)

drag his guide down with him. You were wrong, Michel."

Michel was standing with his hat in his hand.

"Yes, monsieur, I was quite wrong," he said, gently. He turned to a big
and strong man:

"François, will you put on the rope and go down?"

They knotted the rope securely about François' waist and he took his
ice-ax in his hand, sat down on the edge of the crevasse with his legs
dangling, turned over upon his face and said:

"When I pull the rope, haul in gently."

They lowered him carefully down for sixty feet, and at that depth the
rope slackened. François had reached the bottom of the crevasse. For a
few moments they watched the rope move this way and that, and then there
came a definite pull.

"He has found them," said Michel.

Some of the guides lined out with the rope in their hands. Chayne took
his position in the front, at the head of the line and nearest to the
crevasse. The pull upon the rope was repeated, and slowly the men began
to haul it in. It did not occur to Chayne that the weight upon the rope
was heavy. One question filled his mind, to the exclusion of all else.


Previous Stories (40) | Next Stories (42)

Stories Index