How could she know that these two hours had marked the crisis
of a lifetime for Victor Burleigh. With a friendly little
pressure on his arm, she said bravely:

"I'd rather be here with you than over the river with anybody else.
I feel safer here."

Vic knew she meant only to be courteous, but the words were comforting.
On the crest of the ledge the fierceness of the storm was revealed.
Great sheets of wind-blown rain were flung athwart the landscape,
and the utter blackness that followed the lightning's glare,
and the roaring of the wind and river were appalling.

In all this tumult, away to the northeast, the beacon light above
the Sunrise dome was cutting the darkness with a steady beam.

"See that light, Elinor? We are not lost. We must get up
stream a little way. Then we'll find the bridge, all right.
The crowd will get home ahead of us, because this is the rough
side of the river."

"Oh, what a comfort a light can be!" Elinor murmured as she looked
up and caught the welcome gleam.

As they hurried along, the Sunrise light suddenly disappeared
and they found themselves descending a rough downward way.
Presently there were rock walls on either side hemming them
in a narrow crevice in the ledges. Then the rain ceased and Vic
knew they had slidden down into a rock-covered fissure, that they
were getting underground. They tried to turn back, but the up-climb