The Crystal Hunters Part 51

"Yes, up there now. I have often known men ascend mountains on what seemed to be glorious days, and there was only a fine filmy veil to be seen floating round the higher parts--just enough to hide them perhaps for an hour together; but when they came down to the little hotel in the valley, they had a long tale to tell us of having been frostbitten while clinging to the snow slopes and ice-covered rocks, not daring to venture up or down on account of the tremendous, tempestuous wind blowing."

"I say, look here!" cried Saxe, pointing to another peak from which lovely, silvery streamers of cloud spread out: "you don't mean to say that there's bad weather up there now?"

"Indeed, but I do; and if you asked Melchior he would--"

"Hi! Melk!" cried Saxe, as the man came slowly up after them, "what sort of weather is it up there now?"

"Terrible, herr," replied the man, shading his eyes. "The snow must be falling heavily, and a wind raging fierce enough to tear any man from his hold."

"Well!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Saxe, "I am puzzled. Why, the weather looks glorious--like summer!"

"But you forget that if you only go high enough up it is eternal winter.

The tops of those mountains are in the midst of never-failing snow, which is gradually compressed into ice and--"

"Would the herr like to go to the foot of the glacier and examine the ice grotto?"

"We did do that in the other valley."

"But this is a larger cave, herr; and besides, it is the entrance to the one where I journeyed down."

"Can't you settle yourself for a quiet day, Melchior?" said Dale, smiling.

"No, herr; I do not seem to be earning my money. It will be a very easy walk, and we can take the lanthorn and another candle; besides, it is quite fresh. I do not think any one has ever been in it but me."

"What do you say, Saxe?"

"That I should like to go," cried the lad eagerly; for half a day of comparative inaction had been sufficient to weary him, surrounded as he was by such a region of enchantment, where, turn which way he would, there was some temptation to explore.

"I am in the minority," said Dale, smiling; "but I mean to have my own way. No: I shall keep to my previous arrangements. To-day we will rest. To-morrow, if the weather is good, I'm going up to the bare face of that mountain on the other side of the glacier."

"The Bergstock," said Melchior. "Yes, it is one of the places I mean to take you to, herr; for the gletscher winds round behind it, and I hope you will find what you want there."

"I'm not half so eager to find crystals now, Melk," said Saxe that evening, as he sat beside the guide, glad that the day of inaction was at an end.

"Why so?" asked Melchior.

"Because we don't find any, I suppose."

"But when we do the young herr will be as eager as ever."

"Oh!"

"Is the young herr in pain?"

"No: only when I move. My arms are so stiff. I say, don't you feel a bit sore from your work yesterday?"

"Oh yes, herr," said the guide, smiling; "but the best way to ease pains like those is not to think about them."

"I dare say it is," grumbled Saxe; "but it seems to me that it would be easier to bear the pain. I couldn't forget a thing that's always reminding you that you are sore. But there, I am glad it's to-night. I shall go to roost in good time, so as to get a fine long sleep."

Saxe kept his word, and he slept soundly, only waking once when the mule uttered one of its peculiar squeals. But no one was sufficiently alarmed to get up, and the incident was forgotten next morning, when one of many days of an uneventful nature commenced, during which the party made excursions in different directions: into the ice grotto; across the glacier to the Bergstock; up to first one and then another snowfield, and among magnificent views in all directions, and under endless atmospheric changes such as gave constant variety to the surroundings.

And every night Saxe confided to Melchior that he was tired of it all, and every morning was refreshed and ready for fresh action.

The perils of the creva.s.se adventure were almost forgotten; but it seemed to the boy that Dale shrank from going into any fresh danger, and this troubled him.

"I suppose Mr Dale thinks I behaved badly, and was too young," he said.

"But only let me have a chance, and I'll show him I am not such a coward as he thinks."

Then came the evening when Melchior announced that the food supply must be renewed by a long journey to Andregg's chalet, for bread and coffee and b.u.t.ter could not be easily obtained, like wood.

"Will the herr come back with me, or shall I go alone?"

"Go alone, Melchior, and be as quick back as you can."

The next morning when they woke the guide and the mule were gone, probably having started at the first faint dawn.

"Are you going to wait about the tent till he comes back, sir?" said Saxe, as they sat over the breakfast they had prepared.

"No: we will have two or three little excursions of our own, just up to and along the edge of the snow-line; but to-day I should like to visit the glacier again, and see those two creva.s.ses coolly."

An hour after they were well on their way, knowledge having made the task comparatively easy. But it was rather a risky journey, before they had arrived at the spot which was pretty deeply impressed upon their minds: for every now and then some ma.s.s of worn ice fell cras.h.i.+ng down, and raised the echoes of the narrow valley, while a cool wind seemed to have been set free by the fall, and went sighing down the gorge.

They were prepared to find the lower creva.s.se, from which they had recovered Melchior, much less terrible by daylight. To their surprise, it was far more vast and grand, and as they advanced cautiously to the edge and peered down into the blue depths, they both drew breath and gazed at each other with a peculiarly inquiring look.

There were the notches Saxe had cut, but partly melted down by the action of the sun; there, too, were the holes chipped out and used to anchor the ice-axe; and then, as if fascinated by the place, Saxe advanced again to the edge.

"Take care!" said Dale warningly.

"Yes. I only want to see if I can make out the slope up which he climbed."

The boy lay down upon his chest and peered over, but gave quite a start directly, as he felt himself touched.

"I was only hooking you by the belt, my lad," said Dale, who had pushed the head of his axe through the boy's belt. "You can do the same for me another time."

Saxe flushed a little, and looked down again, feeling that Dale was treating him as if he were a child.

"Well," said his companion, "can you see the slope?"

"No: nothing but the blue darkness--nothing."

He drew himself away.

"It's a horrible place," he said.

"What are you going to do?"

"Only send a big lump of ice down."

"I suppose that comes natural to all of us," said Dale, smiling, and helping the lad turn over a huge block broken from one of the shattered seracs. "I never knew any one yet who did not want to send something down every hole he saw, even if it was a well."