Chapter XXV: Down the Slope

Sliding, rolling, tumbling, their senses as well as their bodies in a whirl, the three adventurers kept on in their headlong flight down the slippery slope, reaching out wildly in the hope of grasping something that would check their dizzy speed but clutching nothing but empty air.

As far as they could think of anything in the tumult of their minds, they feared what would be at the end of that long slide.

It might be a precipice over which they would be hurled to instant death. Or they might bring up against an ice hummock or some other obstruction with a force that would break every bone in their bodies.

As they neared the bottom, however, the slide lost its steepness and gradually merged into a gently rolling slope. This served to moderate their speed, so that they had almost stopped rolling when they brought up against some object that halted their flight.

They were dazed and breathless, and for some moments lay motionless in a heap, their predominant feeling one of intense thankfulness that they were still alive. Then they began slowly to untangle themselves and assume a sitting position.

"I--I don't know whether I've got my own legs or somebody else's," gasped Dick, as he extricated those useful members from those of his companions.

"We are pretty well scrambled," admitted Slim, "and that goes for brains as well as legs. My head is spinning like a top. Either of you fellows hurt?"

"Feel as though I'd been drawn through a cement mixer," vouchsafed Flood. "Think I'll take my meals standing up for a while. But none of my bones seem out of whack."

"No more such coasting parties for me!" declared Dick. "That is, if I'm consulted about it beforehand. Gee, what a dizzy whirl!"

"What is it we brought up against at the end, anyway?" asked Flood.

"Don't know," replied Slim, groping behind him, for at that great depth it was almost impossible to see anything. "Feels like----"

He broke off suddenly and sprang to his feet with a yell.

"It's a plane!" he shouted. "It's the _Hope_! Do you hear me, fellows? It's the _Hope_!"

"What?" cried Dick. "You're dreaming!"

"It is, I tell you!" reiterated Slim, almost crazy with excitement and delight. "Feel it! Go over it! Give me your flashlight, Flood."

The young scientist handed it over, and Slim Tyler shot its rays over the object.

The _Hope_! It stood revealed from nose to tail, broken here, bent there, a propeller twisted, the undercarriage awry, but by no means an utter wreck, as Slim Tyler's eye noted at once. If it hadn't been so big, Slim would have hugged it.

There was the _Hope_. But where was Jerry Marbury?

With dread in his heart, Slim Tyler moved slowly toward the cockpit. He was afraid to flash the light into it. What might that light reveal?

But he had to know. With a desperate lunge, he flung the rays into the cockpit, swept the fuselage and the cabin.

His heart leaped. What he had feared to see was not there!

"He wasn't killed when the plane cracked up," exulted Slim, "or his body would be here."

"That's something to be thankful for," replied Dick. "Still, it doesn't really prove anything. He may have been thrown out as the plane came down."

A shout from a little distance made the three adventurers jump.

"Hello! Hello there!" came in a familiar voice that set Slim's and Dick's hearts to beating wildly.

"It's Jerry! Jerry!" cried Slim.

He started running in the direction of the shout, flashing the light ahead of him, his companions close on his heels.

Into the light came Jerry, good old Jerry, hobbling as fast toward them as a bandaged foot would let him!

Slim and Dick swept him into their arms, pounding him, embracing him, mauling him, fairly delirious with relief and rapture.

"Alive! Alive!" cried Slim. "Jerry, old boy, I wouldn't exchange this minute for a million dollars!"

"You'd get stung, then," grinned Jerry, though his eyes were moist from the warmth of the welcome. "I'm not worth that much, living or dead. But I feel the same way about you fellows. When you were thrown out of the plane I was afraid I'd never see you again."

"You stuck to the old ship, though," said Dick, "like the brick you are."

"No credit to me," disclaimed Jerry. "My straps held me in my seat. As soon as I got over the shock, I tried to handle the old bus so that she'd stay aloft. It was no go, though, and she came down at last where you see her. Came down more slowly than I thought she would, and yet hard enough to put one of my legs out of commission."

"It isn't broken, is it?" asked Slim quickly.

"Not as bad as that," was the reply. "But the knee was twisted and the ankle sprained so that this is the first day I've been able to stand on it. Otherwise, you can bet your life, I'd have been out hunting for you. But how did you fellows ever get down to the bottom of this gorge?"

"Tumbled down, and brought up plunk against the plane," laughed Slim. "And we've found Dave Boyd, Jerry."

"Glory be!" cried Jerry. "Is he all right?"

"Perfectly," replied Slim. "So are the rest of his party. Forced down, but nobody hurt. They're patching up the plane now." Then Slim introduced Cameron Flood.

"This sure is my lucky day!" ejaculated Jerry.

"There's one thing in which you were luckier than we were when we were chucked out," put in Dick. "You've had plenty of grub."

"Yes," grinned Jerry. "What's more, I sure have made a hole in it."

"Well, now to get out of here and back to our camp," suggested Flood. "The others will be worried if we don't turn up."

"More easily said than done," said Dick, looking ruefully up the slope down which they had rolled. "We can't go back the way we came, especially Jerry with his crippled leg," and he pointed to the top, where the segment that had broken away had left an overhanging cliff.

"Sure enough," muttered Slim. "That makes it bad."

"I was just coming back from a little scouting expedition when you fellows met me," put in Jerry eagerly. "I found something that seemed to lead out into the open--a sort of a narrow ice bridge it looked like from a little distance. Maybe we could turn the trick with that."

"We'll try anything once," decided Slim Tyler. "Let's get moving. Suppose you fellows," addressing Dick and Flood, "give Jerry an arm each and I'll handle the flashlight."

Following Jerry's directions and moving slowly because of the latter's injured leg, they came before long in sight of the bridge of ice.

It was a natural formation stretching for perhaps two hundred feet over a deep gorge and seemed at the farther end to emerge into open country.

In places it was thick; in others it had been hollowed out beneath by thaws so that its thickness could be measured only by inches. In no place was it wide enough for two to go abreast.

Dick Mylert eyed it dubiously as Slim flashed the light upon it.

"Easiest place in the world to fall from," he commented. "And if one should fall--" He glanced at the yawning gulf below.

"Mighty risky," agreed Slim. "But I'm ready to chance it if the rest of you are."

There was no dissent, and Slim Tyler led the way with his flashlight.

"Come close behind me, Jerry, and hang on to my shoulder," Slim directed. "I'll go slowly."

With the utmost precaution they set their feet on the slippery surface, not lifting one foot till the other was firmly planted. They had to proceed at a snail's pace. The slightest misstep would prove fatal. It was a nightmarish journey.

The voyagers' apprehensions were not lessened by the ominous cracking that made itself heard when they trod on the thinner places of the structure.

More sinister still in threat was the rumbling that grew ever louder from the ice cliffs on either side. This presently assumed tangible form when splinters of ice began to fall.

They were soon more than splinters, large pieces detached from the cliffs falling about the adventurers and at times narrowly missing them.

Every impulse urged hurry. But to hurry might itself mean death.

"Steady, boys, steady!" gritted Slim Tyler between his teeth.

At last, after what seemed ages, Slim reached the plateau on the other side. He gripped Jerry's arm and yanked him to safety.

A hideous rending roar sounded from above.

"Quick, fellows, quick!" yelled Slim.

Dick jumped to the plateau. Flood, who was last, gathered himself for a spring.

A tremendous mass of ice and rock came down from above.

The ice bridge broke!