The Collected SF & Fantasy Works. Abraham Merritt

inexorably we were pressed forward. Now we cowered within a yard-deep niche; now we trembled upon a foot-wide ledge.

      Shuddering, gasping, we glared down the sheer drop of the City’s wall. The smooth and glimmering scarp fell thousands of feet straight to the valley floor. And there were no merciful mists to hide what awaited us there; no mists anywhere. In that brief, agonized glance every detail of the Pit was disclosed with an abnormal clarity.

      We tottered on the brink. The ledge melted.

      Down, down we plunged, locked in each other’s arms, hurtling to the shattering death so far below!