’Boots are a nuisance,’ he answered; ’those little chaps of mine looted an army boot-store yesterday; they think boots make them look more like real soldiers. They’ve never worn boots before, and will be footsore in an hour, but they _will_ wear them. I can’t prevent them.’ I could hear them slipping and sliding behind me in the darkness. To make matters worse, after we’d been climbing for a couple of hours, the rain came down in bucketsful, drenched us to the skin, and made everything more slippery than ever. ’I’m going to take mine off,’ I told Gerald when I had slipped badly again, and so I did, hanging my boots round my neck, and stuffing my socks inside them. Presently we heard a sliding noise behind us, a rifle went bounding and clattering down, a man gave a scream, and then, far below, we heard a crash, as if the body had fallen into dry bushes. ’That’s one gone over the edge,’ Gerald said, quite coolly, ’I wish the others would do as you’ve done and take off their boots. Keep well to the right.’ I didn’t like it at all, and you bet I put each foot down jolly carefully before I trusted my weight to it. We were walking, or scrambling, up a rock path, and I knew that on our left the mountain-side sloped down very precipitously, and far below, under my feet, could hear the noise of a rushing stream; it sounded thousands of feet below. Noise! Why, it didn’t much matter what noise we made! For, although the rain had ceased nearly as quickly as it had commenced, the night and blackness was full of the noises of mountain torrents, splashing down the rocks above and below us—all round us, in fact—sluicing stones along with them, and making a great rattle. We knew that the ’Gnome’ was still plodding on ahead, for he kept calling softly back every few seconds. Then a great black gap seemed to open right out at our feet—it looked like the end of the world for blackness. My nerves were pretty jumpy—they hadn’t yet recovered from that fight with _La Buena Presidente_—and I clutched at a rock and shivered in my wet things. We had stopped, and the ’Gnome’ was taking off his boots. ’You’ll have to be careful here,’ Gerald said. ’Lean well to the right and get a good grip before you put your weight on your feet. Come on!’ I heard the ’Gnome’ scrambling round something, sending stones flying down into space, Gerald disappeared, and I followed with my heart in my mouth. ’Dig your toes in and get a good grip,’ he sang out, and I stuck them into a ledge and a little crack I felt, skinning them, I know, and worked my way along. My shoulders were hanging over that black pit below, and I had that awful feeling that I wanted to let go and fall down. I dare not move hand or foot, but just as I was beginning to sweat with fear, Gerald caught me by one hand and pulled me round. ’That’s the worst bit, Billums; we shall lose some of them here.’ I couldn’t answer—my jaws were chattering so much. I was trembling all over.