It was fortunate that we had brought the yak, for without the warmth from its shaggy body I believe that we should have perished, even in our tent.

For some hours we watched, as indeed we must, since to sleep might mean to die, yet saw nothing save the lonely stars, and heard nothing in that awful silence, for here even the wind made no noise as it slid across the snows.
Accustomed as I was to such exposure, my faculties began to grow numb and my eyes to shut, when suddenly Leo said--"Look, below the red star!" I looked, and there high in the sky was the same curious glow which we had seen upon the previous night.

There was more than this indeed, for beneath it, almost on a line with us and just above the crests of the intervening peaks, appeared a faint sheet of fire and revealed against it, something black.

Whilst we watched, the fire widened, spread upwards and grew in power and intensity.

Now against its flaming background the black object became clearly visible, and lo! it was the top of a soaring pillar surmounted by a loop.