noon
I started backward ; and then the noble morning star disclosed herself , swinging in the sky like a blazing jewel in a translucent sea . Before me was a projecting piece of rock , which had shut off the view , and but for that warning star I must have gone to my death . For my foot was slipping on ice -- and I was clinging to the cliff-wall upon the other side of the tiny platform , where I had stood with Pierre , and the Old Angel thundered over me . And , instead of noon , as I had thought it to be , it was only dawn , and the distant sky was banded with faint bars of yellow and gold , and the fresh morning air was in my nostrils . I picked my way back , inch by inch , across the ice which coated the rocky floor for a few yards within the tunnel , until I stood in safety again . The full purport of this discovery now came to me , and it filled me with frantic joy . For , since the cave connected with that platform beneath the cataract , it was evident that by crossing the ledge , a dangerous but not precarious feat , I should enter the main tunnel again and come out eventually beyond the hills , even allowing for a preliminary blunder into the wrong track .