Fortunately there was a good deal of broken timber thrown up at"high-water" mark, and with a stack of this at the mouth of the little cave apleasant fire was soon made by help of a flint pebble and the steel back ofmy sword. It was a hearty blaze and lit up all the near cliffs with a ruddyjumping glow which gave their occu- pants a marvellous appearance oflife. The heat also brought off the dull rime upon the side of my recess,leaving it clear as polished glass, and I was a little startled to see, only aninch or so back in the ice and standing as erect as ever he had been in life,the figure of an imposing grey clad man. His arms were folded, his chindropped upon his chest, his robes of the finest stuff, the very flowers theyhad decked his head with frozen with immortality, and under them, roundhis crisp and iron-grey hair, a simple band of gold with strange runes andfigures engraved upon it.
There was something very simple yet stately about him, though hisface was hidden and as I gazed long and in- tently the idea got hold of methat he had been a king over an undegenerate Martian race, and had stoodwaiting for the Dawn a very, very long time.
I wished a little that he had not been quite so near the glassy surface ofthe ice down which the warmth was bringing quick moisture drops. Hadhe been back there in the blue depths where others were sitting andcrouching it would have been much more comfortable. But I was a sailor,and misfortune makes strange companions, so I piled up the fire again, andlying down presently on the dry shingle with my back to him staredmoodily at the blaze till slowly the fatigues of the day told, my eyelidsdropped and, with many a fitful start and turn, at length I slept.
It was an hour before dawn, the fire had burnt low and I was dreamingof an angry discussion with my tailor in New York as to the sit of my lastnew trousers when a faint sound of moving shingle caught my quickseaman ear, and before I could raise my head or lift a hand, a man's weightwas on me--a heavy, strong man who bore me down with irresistible force.
I felt the slap of his ice-cold hand upon my throat and his teeth in the backof my neck! In an instant, though but half awake, with a yell of surprise and anger I grappled with the enemy, and exerting all my strength rolledhim over. Over and over we went struggling to- wards the fire, and whenI got him within a foot or so of it I came out on top, and, digging myknuckles into his throttle, banged his head upon the stony floor in recklessrage, until all of a sudden it seemed to me he was done for. I relaxed mygrip, but the other man never moved. I shook him again, like a terrierwith a rat, but he never resented it. Had I killed him? How limp and coldhe was! And then all of a sudden an uneasy feeling came upon me. Ireached out, and throwing a handful of dried stuff upon the embers the firedanced gaily up into the air, and the blaze showed me I was savagelyholding down to the gravel and kneeling on the chest of that long-deadking from my grotto wall!
It was the man out of the ice without a doubt. There was the veryniche he had fallen from under the influence of the fire heat, the veryrecess, exactly in his shape in every detail, whence he had stood gazinginto vacuity all those years. I left go my hold, and after the flutter in myheart had gone down, apologetically set him up against the wall of thecavern whence he had fallen; then built up the fire until twirling flamesdanced to the very roof in the blue light of dawn, and hobgoblin shadowsleapt and capered about us. Then once more I sat down on the oppositeside of the blaze, resting my chin upon my hands, and stared into thefrozen eyes of that grim stranger, who, with his chin upon his knees, staredback at me with irresistible, remorseless steadfastness.
He was as fresh as if he had died but yesterday, yet by his clothing andsomething in his appearance, which was not that of the Martian of to-day,I knew he might be many thousand years old. What things he had seen,what wonders he knew! What a story might be put into his mouth if Iwere a capable writer gifted with time and imagination instead of a pooroutcast, ill-paid lieutenant whose literary wit is often taxed hardly to filleven a log- book entry! I stared at him so long and hard, and he at methrough the blinking flames, that again I dozed--and dozed-- and dozedagain until at last when I woke in good earnest it was daylight.
By this time hunger was very aggressive. The fire was naught but acirclet of grey ashes; the dead king, still sitting against the cave-side, looked very blue and cold, and with an uncomfortable realisation of myposition I shook myself together, picked up and pocketed without muchthought the queer gold circlet that had dropped from his forehead, andwent outside to see what prospect of escape the new day had brought.
It was not much. Upriver there was not the remotest chance. Noteven a Niagara steamer could have forged back against the sluice comingdown from the gulch there. Looking round, the sides of the icyamphitheatre--just lighting up now with glorious gold and crimsonglimmers of morning--were as steep as a wall face; only back towards thefalls was there a possibility of getting out of the dreadful trap, so thither Iwent, after a last look at the poor old king, along my narrow beach with allthe eagerness begotten of a final chance. Up to the very brink it lookedhopeless enough, but, looking downwards when that was reached, insteadof a sheer drop the slope seemed to be a wild "staircase" of rocks and icyledges with here and there a little patch of sand on a cornice, and far below,five hundred feet or so, a good big spread of gravel an acre or two inextent close by where the river plunged out of sight into the nethermostcavern mouth.
It was so hopeless up above it, it could not possibly be worse furtherdown, and there was the ugly black flood running into the hole to trustmyself to as a last resource; so slipping and sliding I began the descent.
Had I been a schoolboy with a good breakfast ahead the incident mighthave been amusing enough. The travel- ling was mostly done on the seatof my trousers, which consequently became caked with mud and glacialloam. Some was accomplished on hands and knees, with now and then abit down a snow slope, in good, honest head-over- heels fashion. Theresult was a fine appetite for the next meal when it should pleaseprovidence to send it, and an abrupt arrival on the bottom beach about fiveminutes after leaving the upper circles.
I came to behind a cluster of breast-high rocks, and before movingtook a look round. Judge then of my as- tonishment and delight at thesecond glance to perceive about a hundred yards away a brown object,looking like an ape in the half light, meandering slowly up the margin ofthe water towards me. Every now and then it stopped, stooping down to pick up something or other from the scum along the torrent, and it was thefact that these trifles, whatever they were, were put into a wallet by thevision's side--not into his mouth--which first made me understand with ajoyful thrill that it was a MAN before me--a real, living man in this hugechamber of dead horrors! Then again it flashed across my mind in aluminous moment that where one man could come, or go, or live, anothercould do likewise, and never did cat watch mouse with more concentrated eagerness than I that quaint, bent-shouldered thing hobblingabout in the blue morning shadows where all else was silence.
Nearer and nearer he came, till so close face and garb were discernible,and then there could no longer be any doubt, it was a woodman, an oldman, with grizzled monkey-face, stooping gait, and a shaggy fur cloak,utterly unlike the airy garments of my Hither folk, who now stood beforeme. It gave me quite a start to recognise him there, for it showed I was ina new land, and since he was going so cheerfully about his business,whatever it might chance to be, there must be some way out of thisaccursed pit in which I had fallen. So very cautiously I edged out, takingadvantage of all the cover possible until we were only twenty yards apart,and then suddenly standing up, and putting on the most affable smile, Icalled out-"Hullo, mess-mate!"The effect was electrical. That quaint old fellow sprang a yard intoair as though a spring had shot him up. Then, coming down, he stoodtransfixed at his full height as stiff as a ramrod, staring at me withincredible wonder. He looked so funny that in spite of hunger andloneliness I burst out laughing, whereat the woodman, suddenlyrecovering his senses, turned on his heels and set off at his best pace in theopposite direction. This would never do! I wanted him to be my guide,philosopher, and friend. He was my sole visible link with the outsideworld, so after him I went at tip-top speed, and catching him up in fiftyyards along the shingle laid hold of his nether garments. Whereat the oldfellow stopping suddenly I shot clean ov............