“I think this is about the best spot we have seen,” he said.  “The drop is steep but regular, although I expect we’ll be breathless when we get to the bottom.  Would you like to try?  If not, perhaps somebody else will come.”

He looked at the others, and they looked at the white declivity.  It was much longer than any they had gone down, and a girl laughed.

“To begin with, we’ll watch you.  I was upset on the last slide and it’s rather a long way to roll down to the dale.”

Grace lay down on a cushion with her head just behind the toboggan’s curved front; Thorn found room farther back, with his legs in the snow, and amidst some laughter and joking the others pushed; them off.  The surface was hard, and for a time the toboggan ran smoothly and steadily; then the pace got faster, and showers of snow flew up like spray.  It beat into Grace’s eyes and whipped her face, until she bent her head in the shelter of the curled front.

The sharp hiss the steel runners made was louder, the wind began to scream, and she got something of a shock when she cautiously looked up.  It was hard to see through the snowy spray, but the top of the crag looked ominously near.  Glancing down hill with smarting eyes, she thought the slope, which, from the top, had seemed to fall evenly to the dale, was also inclined towards the crag.  She could not see much of the latter, but there was a fringe of dark rock where the white declivity broke off.

“Aren’t we getting too near?” she shouted.

“Nearer than I thought,” Thorn gasped.  “Not sure I can swing the sledge.  Can you get back and help?”

Grace braced herself.  Alan’s nerve was good, but there was a disturbed note in his voice; besides he would not have asked her help unless it was needed.  Wriggling back cautiously, she got level with Thorn, although there was not much room for them side by side.  Her feet and the seam of her short dress brushed in the snow and tore up the surface.  She felt the looser stuff beneath foam about her gaiters, but this was an advantage.  The drag would help to stop the sledge, and if she could put an extra pressure on one side, to some extent direct it.  Still they were going very fast and at first she was nearly pulled off.  She tightened her grasp with her hands until she felt her gloves split, and then risked another glance ahead.

The rocks were very close, but the sledge had passed the top, and she could see a few yards down the dark side as they followed the curving edge of the crag.  The sledge was now running nearly straight down the hill, but the curve bent in towards them, and she could not tell if they would shoot past the widest spot or plunge over.

“Perhaps you had better let go,” Thorn said hoarsely.

Grace shook her head.  If she dropped off, it was uncertain whether she would stop until she had rolled some distance; perhaps she might not stop before she reached the edge of the crag.  Anyhow, she did not mean to let go, and tried to catch the snow with her toes in an effort to help Thorn to steer the sledge.  It swerved a little but rushed on again, and she saw that the edge of the rock curved in yet.  She doubted if they were far enough off to get past the bend.