safe descent was possible.
While Ootah and his companion stood on the peak, the moon passed behind
a veil of clouds and Ootah felt two soft wraith-like hands pass over
his face--cloud-hands which his simple mind believed were sentient
things. His heart for the moment seemed to stop. Thus the kind
spirits warn men of danger.
At that instant a stinging sound smote the air. The glacial side of
the mountain trembled, and as the moon reappeared, on the icy slopes
Ootah saw narrow black cracks zigzagging in various directions. A
cataclysmic rumbling sounded deep in the earth.
When the echoes died away he turned to Koolotah.
"Be brave of heart. Let us go--there is no time to lose."
"_Huk_! _Huk_! _Huk_!" They urged the dogs gently. Arranging
themselves instinctively in single file, the traces slackening, the
wonderful dogs, with feline caution, crept ahead. Lowering their
bodies, each behind his sledge, Ootah and Koolotah began moving
stealthily downward. With one hand each clung to the rough icy
projections of the slope; with the other they held the rear upstander
of their sleds to prevent them from sliding, with their precious loads
of meat, down the mountainside.
Half way down, Ootah uttered a cry.
His quick ear detected a faint splitting noise, like the crack of young
ice in forming, under his feet. In an instant he realized their danger.
At the time he had reached a hollow in the perilous slope. The dogs
ahead, with quick instinct, retreated and crouched at his feet in the
sheltering cradle.
Ootah saw Koolotah turn and look inquiringly upward. The next moment,
driven downward by the wind, a mass of clouds, glittering with bleached
moonfire, rolled over the slopes and hid Koolotah. Ootah only heard
his voice.
Then the glacial mountainside to which he clung trembled. A terrific
crash, like that of cannon, followed. The very mountain seemed to
shake. For a brief awful spell everything was still--then, with an
appalling thunder, the ice split and began to move. The moon
reappeared and Ootah--in a tense moment--saw chasms widening about him
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