All this while we had been travelling towards Xaca's fiery crest by the
bright moonlight, but now the dawn broke suddenly on the mountain top,
and the flame died away in the heart of the pillar of smoke. It was
wonderful to see the red glory that shone upon the ice-cap, and on us
two men who crept like flies across it, while the mountain's breast and
the world below were plunged in the shadows of night.
'Now we have a better light to climb by, comrade!' I called to de
Garcia, and my voice rang strangely among the ice cliffs, where never a
man's voice had echoed before.
As I spoke the mountain rumbled and bellowed beneath us, shaking like
a wind-tossed tree, as though in wrath at the desecration of its sacred
solitudes. With the rumbling came a shower of grey ashes that rained
down on us, and for a little while hid de Garcia from my sight. I heard
him call out in fear, and was afraid lest he had fallen; but presently
the ashes cleared away, and I saw him standing safely on the lava rim
that surrounds the crater.
Now, I thought, he will surely make a stand, for could he have found
courage it had been easy for him to kill me with his sword, which he
still wore, as I climbed from the ice to the hot lava. It seemed that he
thought of it, for he turned and glared at me like a devil, then went on
again, leaving me wondering where he believed that he would find refuge.
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