anxiety in his face. Still, his manner indicated that he considered
himself master of the situation.

"You notice," he said, "that this wind is variable, and there lies our
chance. When the blasts weaken, the air springs back from the face of the
cliff and then whirls round to the right. I've no doubt that there is a
passage in that direction through which the wind finds its way behind
this icy mountain, and if we can get there, too, we shall undoubtedly
find at least partial shelter. I'm going to take advantage of the first
lull."

It worked out just as he had predicted. As the wind surged back after a
particularly vicious rush against the great blue cliff, we cut loose and
went sailing up into it, rushing past the glittering wall so swiftly that
it made our heads swim. In two or three minutes we rounded a corner, and
then found ourselves in a kind of atmospheric eddy, where the car simply
spun round and round, with the sleds whirling below it.

"Now for it!" shouted Edmund. "Hang on!"

He touched a knob, and instantly we rose with immense speed. We must have
shot up a couple of thousand feet, when the wind, coming over the top of
the icy barrier we had just flanked, caught us again, and swept us off on
a horizontal course. Then, suddenly, the air cleared all round about, as
if a magic broom had swept away the clouds. The spectacle that was
revealed--but why try to describe it! No language could do it. Yet I must
tell you what we saw.

We were in the heart of the _Crystal Mountains!_ They towered round us on
every side, and stretched away in interminable ranges of shining