The Girl and the Glacier
By George P. Pearce
This is an idyllic story, transferring us from the present time to the days of Louis Fourteenth and then bringing us back again to our era. The adventures, in and on a glacier, lead eventually to a happy ending.
Illustrated by MOREY
"Well, I'll be shanghaied, Jake, if it isnt starting to snow!" said the astonished Ted Underwood to his horse. The young man had good cause to be astonished too, for it was still August. Had he had a guide with him, however, he would have learned that snowstorms were not uncommon around the Canadian Rockies as early as this.
The horse, Ted noticed, took the unexpected storm very complacently and continued plodding due south with the utmost contempt for the whirling padding snow. Now Jake had always lived around Lake Louise and probably knew as much about the place and weather there, as any human being, so Ted felt complete confidence in his horse's ability to get home even after the trail became obliterated. The snowstorm increased in fury and quickly whipped up into a blizzard so that it was impossible to see ten paces ahead and Ted abandoned the reins and let Jake choose his own way. Their location, as near as Ted could estimate, was fifty miles north of Kicking Horse Pass and along the lower slope of the Rockies. He figured there was no chance of reaching Lake Louise for a couple of days but as he still had a three days supply of pemican left and plenty of ammunition for his rifle, he had nothing to worry about. Furthermore he would just as soon sleep in a shelter of rocks and pine branches as in the hotel bed, for he enjoyed his vacation best out of doors.
Suddenly his thoughts were broken by a terrific rending crash followed by a resounding plunge. The avalanche, or whatever it was, startled Jake and he shied towards the right and started scrambling up the mountain side. Ted, with a tight grip on the reins, lay well forward for there were plenty of trees around and to get brushed off in this wild rugged wilderness might bring his trip to a disastrous ending. Up the mountain side raced Jake, twisting in and out among the pine trees at a pace that would have to slacken soon, for the slope was getting steeper and steeper. Then an extraordinary thing happened: The ground under Jake gave way and the horse disappeared. Ted who had leapt from the saddle clawed frantically on the ice and snow at the edge of the crevasse, but was unable to grab anything and finally tumbled into the black hole after his horse. He fell a considerable distance, hit something springy, bounced into snow and ice, struck his head and lay stunned.
Some time afterwards Ted opened his eyes and for a while could not realize where he was. All he could see was a large jagged hole straight above him through which snow was falling, he also had a terrific headache and felt frozen. Soon the memory of the fall returned and staggering to his feet he tottered over to where Jake lay and found that that unfortunate animal had broken its neck and that its final act had been to save its master's life for he saw where he had bounced off Jake's tough ribs into the mass of snow, ice and rocks that had once formed the roof of the cavern he was now in. By this time his eyes had become used to the weak light, and he saw that the cavern was about thirty feet wide and possibly twenty feet high. The length, however, was indeterminable, for it disappeared into abysmal blackness in both directions. He did not waste any time in speculating as to what had formed the cavern or whether the recent avalanche had anything to do with the roof being so thin, for he knew the most important thing to do was to get out as quickly as possible. He would probably have to walk all the way back to Lake Louise, about seventy miles he estimated, for the possibility of running into an exploring party was very remote. Furthermore he had left no word at the hotel as to where he had gone or when he was to be expected back, so there was absolutely no chance of a rescue party hunting for him. The pittance of light did not permit him to search very far in either direction and by the end of half an hour he had confirmed his suspicions that for several hundred feet in both directions the walls and floor were solid rock without even a crack. He also discovered the remarkable fact that the walls and floor were also polished and scored and perfectly clean which indicated glacial action—but who ever heard of a glacier flowing inside a cavern? The clean floor also prevented any possibility of collecting rocks and boulders to build a pyramid up which he could climb to reach the surface again. Then he thought of Jake's fifty foot tether line, and taking this from the saddle he picked up a small chunky rock from the clutter that had fallen from the roof and tied it to one end. Next he threw this through the jagged window, or skylight, hoping that the attached rope would become entangled with something outside and then he could climb up and escape. This idea was
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