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"We tried to cheer, but excitement had gripped our vocal chords. Macklin had made a rush for the flagstaff, previously placed in the most conspicuous position on the ice-slope. The running-gear would not work, and the flag was frozen into a solid, compact mass so he tied his jersey to the top of the pole for a signal.
Far away to the left there was a depression up which possibly a way might be forced. "I think, monsieur, that must be the way," said Pierre. "But you should know" said Garratt Skinner. "It is some time since I was here. I have forgotten;" and Pierre began to traverse the ice-slope to the left. Garratt Skinner followed without a word.
Lascelles seemed more disposed to wait for me than to hurry after him. I think he pushed the pace unwittingly, under the prick of those emotions which otherwise were in such excellent control. I can see him now, continually waiting for us on the brow of some glistening ice-slope, leaning on his alpenstock and looking back, jet-black by contrast between the blinding hues of ice and sky.
Then a great cloud of snow-dust burst in their faces, half blinding them: and, with the roar of an express train, the avalanche sped down the ravine; burying the ice-slope they had just crossed; and obliterating their footsteps as man's work is obliterated by the soundless avalanche of the years. All five men let out their breath in an audible murmur.
His weight disturbed the balance of the thing, it rolled over ponderously, and as Kotuko sprang aside to avoid it, slid after him, squeaking and hissing on the ice-slope. That was enough for Kotuko. Before he reached home he was quite certain that he had held a long conversation with her, and as all his people believed that this was quite possible, no one contradicted him.
My recollection is that it was empty when I first inspected it. It certainly contained no diaries or briefing material. Captain Gemmell did not remove any items from the persons of deceased lying in the area...." Counsel proceeded to read from the letter which goes on to refer to instructions concerning the crevassed area of the ice-slope.
The steep, smooth, long ice-slope, white upon the surface, grayish-green or even black where the ax had cut the step, the place where no slip must be made.
It will be a day in your life which you will never forget. Therefore you want it to be as complete as possible is it not so? It is a good rock-climb, the Aiguille des Charmoz yes. But the Argentière is more complete. There is a glacier, a rock traverse, a couloir up a rock-cliff, and at the top of that a steep ice-slope. And that is not all.
The two Pathans remained rigid, impassive, the greater the danger the cooler do these men become: but the Kirghiz a creature without self-respect shook so violently that he dropped the bridles of his ponies. "Run, Sahib . . run!" he stammered. "Or we be all dead men." But there was nowhere to run to, even had running on an ice-slope been possible; which it was not.
But she had been reading deeply of the Alps, and in all the histories of mountain exploits which she had read, of climbs up vertical cracks in sheer walls of rocks, balancings upon ridges sharp as a knife edge, crawlings over smooth slabs with nowhere to rest the feet or hands, it was the ice-slope which had most kindled her imagination.
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