reins, and the vehicle passed out of sight round a corner of the cliff.

I had but a moment in which to reflect on what might be done to rescue
her. In that moment I providentially spied a double-edged axe which lay
beside me on the grass, having fallen from the hands of one of the
natives. Snatching up this weapon, I rushed to the edge of the cliff,
and looked down. It was almost a sheer precipice, broken only by narrow
shelves and clefts, on some of which grass grew, while on others a slight
mountain-ash or a young birch just managed to find foothold.

Far, far beneath, hundreds of feet below, I could trace the windings of
the path up which we had climbed.

Instantly my plan was conceived. I would descend the cliff, risking my
life, of course, but that was now of small value in this hopelessly
heathen land, and endeavour to save the benighted Doto from the
destruction to which she was hastening. Her car must pass along that
portion of the path which lay, like a ribbon, in the depth below me,
unless, as seemed too probable, it chanced to be upset before reaching
the spot. To pursue it from behind was manifestly hopeless.

These thoughts flashed through my brain more rapidly than even the flight
of the maddened red deer; and scarcely less swiftly, I began scrambling
down the face of the cliff. It was really a series of almost hopeless
leaps to which I was committed, and the axe, to which I clung, rather
impeded than aided me as I let myself drop from one rocky shelf to
another, catching at the boughs and roots of trees to break my fall. At
last I reached the last ledge before the sheer wall of rock, which hung
above the path. As I let myself down, feeling with my feet for any shelf
or crack in the wall, I heard the blare of the stags, and the rattle of