Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/50

338 fore taking hold it -would have been all over with my friend. The Summit Attained by the Two Explorers SUCH experiences shake the strongest nerves, and we sat on the shelf we had attained for fully a quarter of an hour before we ventured to attack the next precipice which hung beetling directly above us. It was not as lofty as the one we had just ascended, but it impended to such a de- gree that we saw we should have to climb our rope while it swung free in the air! Luckily we had little difficulty in getting a grip for the prongs, and we took every precaution to test the security of the anchorage, not only putting our combined weight repeatedly upon the rope, but flipping and jerking it with all our strength. The grapple resisted every effort to dislodge it, and finally I started up, insisting on my turn as leader. The height I had to ascend did not exceed one hundred feet, but that is a very great distance to climb on a swinging rope, without a wall within reach to assist by its friction and occasional friendly projections. In a little while my movements, to- gether with the effect of the slight wind, had im- parted a most distressing oscillation to the rope. This sometimes carried me with a nerve-shaking bang against a prominent point of the precipice, where I would dislodge loose fragments that kept Hall dodging for his life, and then I would swing out, apparently beyond the brow of the cliff below, so that, as I involuntarily glanced downward, I seemed to be hanging in free space,, while the steep mountainside, looking ten times steeper than it really was, resembled the vertical wall of an ab- solutely bottomless abyss, as if I were suspended" over the edge of the world. I avoided thinking of what the grapple might be about, and in my haste to get through with the awful experience I worked myself fairly out of breath, so that, when at last I reached the rounded brow of the cliff, I had to stop and cling there for fully a minute before I could summon strength enough to lift myself over it. When I was assured that the grapple was still securely fastened I signalled to Hall, and he soon stood at my side, exclaiming, as he wiped the perspiration from his faee; "I think I'll try wings next time!" But our difficulties had only begun. As we had foreseen, it was a case of Alp above Alp, to the very limit of human strength and patience. However, it would have been impossible to go back. In order to descend the two precipices we had surmounted it would have been necessary to leave our life-lines clinging to the rocks, and we had not rope enough to do that. If we could not reach the top we were A View from the Summit and Spying on Dr. Syx HAVING refreshed ourselves with a bite to eat and a little stimulant, we resumed the climb. After several hours of the most ex- hausting work I have ever performed we pulled our weary limbs upon the narrow ridge, but a few square yards in area, which constitutes the apex of the Grand Teton. A little below, on the opposite side of a steep-walled gap which divides the top of the mountain into two parts, we saw the singular en- closure of stones which the early white explorers found there, and which they ascribed to the In- dians, although nobody has ever known who built it or what purpose it served. The view was, of eourae, superb, but while I was admiring it in all its wonderful extent and variety, Hall, who had immediately pulled out his binocular, was busy inspecting the Syx works, the top of whose great tufted smoke column was thousands of feet beneath our level. Jackson's Lake, Jenny's Lake, Leigh's Lake, and several lakelets glittered in the sunlight amid the pale grays and greens of Jack- son's Hole, while many a bending reach of the Snake Kiver shone amid the wastes of sage-brush and rock. "There!" suddenly exclaimed Ha!L.J[ thought I should find it." "What?" "Take a look through my glass at the roof of Syx's mill. Look just in the centre." "Why, it's open in the middle!" I cried as soon as I had put the glass to my eyes. "There's a big cir- cular hole in the centre of the roof." "Look inside! Look inside!" repeated HalL im- patiently. "I see nothing there except something bright." "Do you call it nothing because it is bright!" "Well, no," I replied, laughing. "What I mean is that I see nothing that I can make anything of ex- cept a shining object, and all I can make of that is that it is bright" "You've been in the Syx works many times, haven't you?" "Yes." "Did you ever see the opening in the roof 7** "Never." "Then Dr. Syx doesn't show his visitors ©very- thing that is to be seen." "Evidently' not since, as we know, he concealed the double tunnel and the room under the fur- Dr. Syx An Alchemist fj 1 that," Hall responded, "and the Grand A^r Teton has helped me to a glimpse of it. For several minutes my friend was absorbed in thought. Then he broke out: "X tell you he's the most wonderful man in the world !" "Who, Dr. Syx? Well, I've long thought that." "Yes, but I mean in a different way from what you are thinking of. Do you remember my asking you once if you believed in alchemy?" "I remember being greatly surprised by your question to! that effect." "Well, now," said Hal], rubbing his hands with a satisfied air, while his eyes glanced keen and bright with the reflection of some passing thought, "Max Syx is greater than any alchemist that ever lived. If those old fellows in the dark ages had accom- plished everything ihey set out to do, they would have been of no more consequence in comparison, with our black-browed friend down yonder than — i than my head is of consequence in comparison with the moon."
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