IN THE GATE Oh! that rush through space! Folk falling thus are supposed to lose consciousness, but I can assert that this is not true.

Never were my wits and perceptions more lively than while I travelled from that broken glacier to the ground, and never did a short journey seem to take a longer time.

I saw the white floor, like some living thing, leaping up through empty air to meet me, then--_finis!_ Crash! Why, what was this?
I still lived.

I was in water, for I could feel its chill, and going down, down, till I thought I should never rise again.

But rise I did, though my lungs were nigh to bursting first.