"That blue line looks to me like a crevice in the ice." "What of that?" asked Barbara, stupidly. "That shows something queer! This slide seldom cracks into fissures, but when it does it means trouble. If that crevice goes down very deep it shows unusual warmth underneath. And that may move this upper section of ice-field any time, thus creating an awful land-slide, don't you see?" "Oh, mercy! Let's hurry back!" cried Barbara, wheeling her horse immediately. "It isn't likely to occur as quickly as that, Bob," said Anne, soothingly. Then turning to Polly, said: "But this slide is said to be stationary." "It _has_ moved, but so seldom that folks never fear it. I know something about land-slides after living in Pebbly Pit for fourteen years, and even a little slide at the lava cliffs causes an awful destruction, so I can picture what this gigantic slide would do if it ever got started down!" "You said it happened when Montresor's Mine was buried?" reminded Eleanor. "Yes, a small one then, and it may happen again, so we won't stay another moment," begged Barbara, from a distance. "It's all right at present, Bob, and I'm going to see if the chasm runs along very far," returned Polly, riding Noddy away from the girls. Anne and Eleanor watched the blinding peak where clouds drifted lazily about so that the top of the crest was visible only now and then. At such times, the sun flashed upon the ice and reflected myriad colors as in a rainbow. "Isn't it just beautiful!" sighed Anne. "As wonderful and beautiful as his Satanic Majesty!" declared Eleanor, but she anxiously watched Polly ride along the brink of the fissure. "Oh, girls! Won't you please come home! I won't be easy till my horse is traveling that corduroy road again!" wailed Barbara. The others laughed. "You complained about _that_ when we crossed it. The time may come when you'd be glad to be standing on Grizzly Slide--after it has slid!" teased Eleanor. "Now I'm going back! So there!" threatened Barbara, but she remained exactly where she was, for she feared to go back alone. "Well, it looks as if we would have to return unrewarded. I can't find a place safe enough to cross to the peak, and the crevice seems to run all the way across and deep down, too," said Polly, coming back to join Anne and Eleanor. "Now will you come back?" nagged Barbara, desperately. "In a minute! We want to watch those rainbow-tinted clouds--they are so beautiful!" sighed Anne. But even as she spoke, the fleecy clouds of snowy white changed quickly to gray. From gray they turned to dark ominous-looking colors, and Polly hastily glanced at the sun. "Let's ride back at once!" said she shortly. [Illustration: NODDY LED THE WAY TO TIMBER AS THE BLIZZARD BEGAN ANEW.] Noddy was turned and urged to lead off as fast as possible, but Polly turned every few moments to watch the clouds now gathering in somber banks and falling down over the Slide. "Girls, make more haste!" ordered she.