The shock revived him for a moment. His eyes opened wide. He braced back his shoulders. He would climb the ledge; and perhaps from that post of vantage he might find himself nearer to his destination than he had dared to think. After all, he had been travelling many hours since last night's camp.
A little to the right the ledge offered a chance of easy ascent. Close past the face of it McLaggan went floundering desperately, hugging his new hope and refusing to admit to himself for an instant how piteously frail a one it was. His first steps went deeper than he expected. They found no bottom. With a startled cry he threw himself backwards, but too late to extricate himself. His face blinded in the smother of snow, he shot down feet foremost, landed softly, pitched aside sharply to the left into empty space, and fell in a heap, his exhausted muscles refusing to make any further effort whatsoever.
Lying there with his eyes shut, McLaggan's first dim thought was: "That settles it! Better here than out there in the damned snow!" He just wanted to go to sleep. But once more that indomitable will of his got busy, and prodded his brain awake. It prodded his senses awake. This
