clattering noise, that continued for several seconds. He knew he was
standing on the brink of the chasm. One quick and earnest prayer he
breathed to the invisible Power, whose hand could protect him in that
dread moment--then, retiring a single pace, and screwing every nerve and
muscle in his body to the utmost tension, he made a step in advance, and
threw himself forward into the dark and fearful void. Who can tell the
whirlwind of thought that rushed through his brain in the brief moment
that he hung above that yawning gulf? Should he have miscalculated his
distance, or chosen a place where the cleft was widest--should his
footing fail, or his strength be unequal to carry him over, what a death
were his! Dashed down that horrible abyss--crashing from rock to rock,
until he lay at the bottom a mutilated corpse. The agony of years was
crowded into one moment--in the next, his feet struck against the firm
rock on the opposite side of the chasm, and he was saved. At least, he
felt that he had for the moment escaped the imminent peril in which he
was placed, and, as he clambered joyfully up the rugged slope at the end
of the cave, he thought little of the dangers he had still to encounter.
All through that long night he sat on the narrow ledge of a rock, while
the angry waves thundered beneath, and cast their cold spray every
instant over him. With the ebbing of the tide, the sea receded from the
cavern; but Frank hesitated to attempt crossing the chasm again; his
limbs had become stiff and benumbed, and his long abstinence had so
weakened his powers that he shrank from the dangerous enterprise. While
giving way to the most desponding reflections, a stentorian hilloa rang
and echoed through the cavern; and never had the human voice sounded so
sweetly in his ear. He replied to it with a thrilling shout of joy, and,
in a few minutes, several persons with torches appeared advancing. A
plank was speedily thrust across the fissure, and Frank Costello once
more found himself amid a group of his friends, who were warmly
congratulating him upon his miraculous escape. They told him that, from