Sheer and sudden it gaped with sharp edges, as the mouth of some monster that waited for prey.
There on the snow I believe that I should have bided to sleep the sleep of the frozen, for I hardly dared to move.

The snow whirled round me again, but I did not heed it, and with a great roar the wind rose and swept up the rift with a sound as of mighty harps, but it did not rouse me.

Only my father's voice came to me again and called me, and I rose up shaking and followed it as it came from time to time, until I was once more on the track that I had lost.
There it left me, but the sadness that had been in its tones was gone when it last came.

And surely that was the touch of no snowflake that lit on my hand for a moment and was gone.
Now I grew stronger, and the fear of the unseen was no longer on me, and I battled onward with wind and snow for a long way.

Thanks to the wind, the track was kept clear of the snow, and I did not lose it again until it led me to help that was unlooked for.
There came the sound of a bell to me, strange sounding indeed, but a bell nevertheless, and I knew that somewhere close at hand was surely some home of monks who would take me in with all kindness.
And presently the track led me nearer to the sound of the sea, and at last bent sharply to the right and began to go downhill, while the sound of the bell grew plainer above the roar of nearer breakers yet.