Inside the Fahrjoch Hut a merry clatter of tin mugs proclaimed that a
climbing party was supping. Ralph Wonderson paused for a moment,
thoughtfully stroking his crampons, before he threw open the door and
entered.
Two stalwart and sunburnt young Englishmen, a beautiful fair-haired
English girl, and three hirsute and jovial Swiss guides were feasting on
the sardines and dried plums which experience has shown to be the best
diet for mountaineers. They looked up cheerily as he entered, and
greeted him with the easy camaraderie of the mountains.
Gratefully relieving himself of his rope, ice-axe, _Baedeker_, goggles,
corkscrew, crampons and other impedimenta of the expert Alpinist, Ralph
seated himself beside the girl.
"You look tired," she said sympathetically.
"Yes," he replied, picking up a sardine by its tail and dropping it into
his mouth with the ease of one long accustomed to mountain huts. "Yes,
I've just satisfied a long-cherished ambition by doing the Matterhorn
and the Jungfrau in the same day without guides."
There was an instant chorus of admiration. The three guides rose to
their feet and gazed at the newcomer in astonishment.
"_Ja wohl! Auf wiedersehen!_" they said warmly.
There is no body of men in the world so free from petty jealousy as the
Swiss guides.
"It is nothing," said Ralph lightly. "What are your plans for to-morrow?
I rather thought of taking things easily myself and doing the
Wetterhorn. I wondered----"
"I'm sure we should be delighted to join you," said the girl, "if you
could consent to be accompanied by such undistinguished climbers. Let me
introduce ourselves. This is my cousin, Sir Ernest Scrivener. This is my
brother, Lord Tamerton. I am Margaret Tamerton."
"Lady Margaret Tamerton!" cried Ralph in amazement. "Little Madge! Don't
you remember me--Ralph Wonderson, your playmate as a child?"
"Ralph!" exclaimed Lady Margaret. "Oh, of course! And I haven't seen you
since you whitewashed all the guinea-pigs and were sent away to school."
* * * * *
Several hours later Lady Margaret stood with Ralph on the terrace
outside the hut. Her eyes plunged into the awful abyss at their feet,
swept along the moonlit valley thousands and thousands of feet below
them, and fastened themselves upon the sinister crags of the Lyskamm and
the stupendous dome of Mont Blanc. A lump came into her throat.
"I don't know why," she said softly, "but I have a presentiment of evil.
Is the Wetterhorn _very_ dangerous?"
Ralph laughed lightly. "A child could climb it blindfolded in
midwinter," he said. "Trust yourself to me, little Madge, to-morrow
and--and----"
"For ever!" added Margaret almost inaudibly as they went into the hut
together.
Mingled happiness and foreboding strangely disturbed her breast, and she
sighed as she trod heavily on the face of one of the guides in climbing
to her shelf. She heard his low sleepy murmur of apology as she drew her
straw about her. There is no more courteous body of men in the world
than the Swiss guides.
Next morning, after a hasty toilet with a handful of snow, the party set
off shortly before sunrise. Ralph by general consent assumed the
leadership. Taking careful soundings with his ice-axe and using his
crampons with almost uncanny certitude, he guided his companions through
a moraine and debouched on to a tremendous glacier.
As he turned to survey those behind them he perceived for the first time
a scar under the left ear of Sir Ernest Scrivener.
"_Teufel!_" he exclaimed under his breath. "It is he! Moorsdyke! My
mortal enemy!" But his meditations were interrupted by the stern nature
of the work before them. Their route led them along the foot of a line
of towering and trembling _séracs_. The vibration of a whisper might
send them crashing down upon the party.
Placing one hand on his lips as a warning for silence, he dexterously
cut steps in the ice with the other. Progress was slow and nerve
racking. Every step had to be taken with infinite precaution. Once Lord
Tamerton slipped and would have fallen headlong to destruction had not
Ralph caught him by the ear and lifted him back into his steps.
But at length the trying passage was almost accomplished. Only Sir
Ernest Scrivener remained in peril.
Unconsciously Ralph removed his fingers from his lips. Inexperienced as
a climber, Sir Ernest imagined this to be a signal that the danger was
now over.
"I say," he began.
It was enough. In an instant the whole line of _séracs_ toppled from
their bases and thundered down upon him. Ralph did not hesitate. The man
was his most deadly enemy, but--he was Lady Margaret's cousin. Ralph
sprang to the rope; it snapped like thread between his fingers.
With a cry of despair Sir Ernest vanished in the roaring avalanche of
ice and snow. Throwing a quick reassuring smile to Lady Margaret, Ralph
joined his hands above his head and dived unflinchingly after him.
(_To be concluded in our next._)
* * * * *
Illustration: _Golfer_ (_playing his second round in the day_). "INTO
THIS BEASTLY BUNKER AGAIN, CADDIE!"
_Caddie._ "NO, S'. THIS IS THE ONE YOU MISSED THIS MORNING."
* * * * *