mentally prognosticating a favourable termination to my expedition, and
telling Madame Barbière not to expect me back till late.

In leisurely fashion I made my way along the track we had previously
traversed, risking no divergence through overhaste, and carefully
examining all landmarks before deciding on any direction. Thus slowly
proceeding, I had the good fortune to come within sound of the cataract
as the sun was sinking behind the mountain ridges to my front; and
presently emerged from the woods at the very spot we had struck in our
former journey together.

A chilly twilight reigned in the ravine, and the noise that came up from
the ruin of the torrent seemed doubly accented by reason of it. The
sound of water moving in darkness has always conveyed to me an impression
of something horrible and deadly, be it nothing of more moment than
the drip and hollow tinkle of a gutter pipe. But the crash in this
echoing gorge was appalling indeed.

For some moments I stood on the brink of the slope, looking across at the
great knife of the fall, with a little shiver of fear. Then I shook
myself, laughed, and without further ado took my courage in hand, and
scrambled down the declivity and up again towards the cleft in the rocks.

Here the chill of heart gripped me again--the watery sliding tunnel
looked so evil in the contracting gloom. A false step in that humid
chamber, and my bones would pound and crackle on the rocks forty feet
below. It must be gone through with now, however; and, taking a long
breath, I set foot in the passage under the curving downpour that seemed
taut as an arched muscle.