"A Splendid morning!" exclaimed Dr George Lawrence, as he entered the
_Salle a manger_ with an obviously new alpenstock in his hand.
"Jolly!" replied Lewis Stoutley, who was stooping at the moment to
button one of his gaiters.
Lewis was addicted to slang, not by any means an uncommon characteristic
of youth!
"The man," he said, with some bitterness, "who invented big buttons and
little button-holes should have had his nose skewered with a
button-hook. He was an ass!"
In order to relieve his feelings and accomplish his ends, Lewis
summarily enlarged the holes with his penknife.
"And _round_ buttons, too," he said, indignantly; "what on earth was the
use of making round buttons when flat ones had been invented? A big
hole and a flat button will hold against anything--even against Scotch
whins and heather. There, now, that abominable job is done."
"You are fond of strong language, Lewie," said Lawrence, as he examined
the spike at the end of his alpenstock.
"I am. It relieves my feelings."
"But don't you think it weakens your influence on occasions when nothing
but strong language will serve? You rob yourself of the power, you
know, to increase the force of it."
"Oh bother! don't moralise, man, but let's have your opinion of the
weather, which is an all-important subject just now."
"I have already given my opinion as to that," said Lawrence, "but here
comes one who will give us an opinion of value.--He is in capital time."
"Good morning, Antoine."
Their guide for the day, Antoine Grennon, a fine stalwart specimen of
his class, returned the salutation, and added that it was a very fine
morning.
"Capital, isn't it?" cried Lewis, cheerfully, for he had got over the
irritation caused by the buttons. "Couldn't be better; could it?"
The guide did not admit that the weather could not be better.
"You look doubtful, Antoine," said Lawrence. "Don't you think the day
will keep up?"
"Keep up!" exclaimed Lewis; "why, the sky is perfectly clear. Of course
it will. I never saw a finer day, even in England. Why do you doubt
it, Antoine?"
The guide pointed to a small cloud that hung over the brow of one of the
higher peaks.
"Appearances are sometimes deceitful in this country," he said. "I
don't doubt the fineness of the day at present, but--"
He was interrupted here by the sudden and noisy entrance of Captain
Wopper and the Professor, followed by the mad artist, whose name, by the
way, was Slingsby.
"No, no," said the Captain to the Professor, with whom he had already
become very intimate, "it won't do to part company. If the Jardang is
too far for the ladies, we will steer for the Mairdyglass, an' cross
over to the what's-'is-name--"
"Chapeau," said the Professor.
"Ah! the shappo," continued the Captain, "and so down by the glacier dez
boys--"
"The what?" asked Lewis, with a half-suppressed smile.
"The glacier dez boys, youngster," repeated the Captain, stoutly.
"Oh, I see; you mean the Glacier des Bois?" said Lewis, suppressing the
smile no longer.
"What I mean, young man," said the Captain, sternly, "is best known to
myself. You and other College-bred coxcombs may call it day bwa, if you
like, but I have overhauled the chart, and there it's spelt d-e-s, which
sounds dez, and b-o-i-s, which seafarin' men pronounce boys, so don't go
for to cross my hawse again, but rather join me in tryin' to indooce the
Professor to putt off his trip to the Jardang, an' sail in company with
us for the day."
"I will join you heartily in that," said Lewis, turning to the man of
science, who stood regarding the Captain with an amiable smile, as a
huge Newfoundland dog might regard a large mastiff; "but why is our
proposed excursion to the Jardin to be altered?"
"Because," said the Professor, "your amiable sister--I beg pardon,
cousin--with that irresistible power of suasion which seems inherent in
her nature, has prevailed on Mademoiselle Horetzki to join the party,
and Mademoiselle is too delicate--sylph-like--to endure the fatigues of
so long an excursion over the ice. Our worthy guide suggests that it
would afford more pleasure to the ladies--and of course, therefore, to
the gentlemen--if you were to make your first expedition only to the
Montanvert which is but a two hours' climb from Chamouni, picnic there,
cross the Mer de Glace, which is narrow at that point, and descend again
to Chamouni by the side of the Glacier des Bois, where you can behold
the great moraines, and also the source of the river Arveiron. This
would be a pleasant and not too fatiguing round, and I, who might
perhaps be an encumbrance to you, will prosecute my inquiries at the
Jardin alone."
"Impossible," exclaimed Lewis, "the Captain is right when he observes
that we must not part company. As my mother says, we are a giddy crew,
and will be the better of a little scientific ballast to keep us from
capsizing into a crevasse. Do come, my dear sir, if it were only out of
charity, to keep us in order."
To this entreaty Lawrence and the artist added their persuasions, which
were further backed by the eloquence of Emma Gray and Nita Horetzki, who
entered at the moment radiant with the flush of life's dawning day, and
irresistible in picturesque mountain attire, the chief characteristics
of which consisted in an extensive looping up of drapery, and an
ostentatious display of those staffs called alpenstocks, five feet long,
tipped with chamois horn, which are an indispensable requisite in Alpine
work.
"Oh! you _muss_ go," said Nita, in silvery tones and disjointed English.
"If you go not, monsieur, _I_ go not!"
"That of course decides the question, Mademoiselle," said the gallant
Professor, with one of his blandest smiles, "I shall accompany you with
pleasure. But I have one little request to make. My time at Chamouni
is short; will you permit me, on arriving at the Mer de Glace, to
prosecute my inquiries? I am here to ask questions of Nature, and must
do so with perseverance and patience. Will you allow me to devote more
of my attention to _her_ than to yourself?"
"H'm! well--what you say, Mademoiselle Gray?" demanded Nita, with an
arch look at her companion. "Is the Professor's request reasonable?"
To this Emma replied that as Nature was, upon the whole, a more
important lady than either of them, she thought it _was_ reasonable;
whereupon the Professor agreed to postpone his visit to the Jardin, and
devote his day to fixing stakes and making observations on the Mer de
Glace, with a view to ascertaining the diurnal rate of speed at which
the glacier flowed.
"You spoke of putting certain questions to Nature, Professor," said
Lawrence, when the party were slowly toiling up the mountain-side.
"Have they not already been put to her, and satisfactorily answered some
time ago?"
"They have been put," replied the Professor, "by such learned men as
Saussure, Agassiz, Rendu, Charpentier, and by your own countryman
Forbes, and others, and undoubtedly their questions have received
distinct answers, insomuch that our knowledge of the nature and action
of glacial ice is now very considerable. But, my dear sir, learned men
have not been agreed as to what Nature's replies mean, nor have they
exhausted the subject; besides, no true man of science is quite
satisfied with merely hearing the reports of others, he is not content
until he has met and conversed with Nature face to face. I wish,
therefore, to have a personal interview with her in these Alps, or
rather," continued the Professor, in a more earnest tone, "I do wish to
see the works of my Maker with my own eyes, and to hear His voice with
the ears of my own understanding."
"Your object, then, is to verify, not to discover?" said Lawrence.
"It is both. Primarily to verify; but the man of science always goes
forth with the happy consciousness that the mine in which he proposes to
dig is rich in gems, and that, while seeking for one sort, he may light
upon another unexpectedly."
"When Captain Wopper turned up yonder gem, he lit on one which, if not
of the purest water, is unquestionably a brilliant specimen of the class
to which it belongs," said Lewis, coming up at that moment, and pointing
to a projection in the somewhat steep part of the path up which they
were winding.
The gem referred to was no other than our friend Gillie White. That
hilarious youth, although regenerated outwardly as regards blue cloth
and buttons, had not by any means changed his spirit since fortune began
to smile on him. Finding that his mistress, being engaged with her
dark-eyed friend, did not require his services, and observing that his
patron, Captain Wopper, held intercourse with the guide--in broken
English, because he, the guide, also spoke broken English--that Lawrence
and the Professor seemed capable of entertaining each other, that Lewis
and the artist, although dreadfully jealous of each other, were fain to
hold social intercourse, the ladies being inseparable, and that he,
Gillie, was therefore left to entertain himself he set about amusing
himself to the best of his power by keeping well in rear of the party
and scrambling up dangerous precipices, throwing stones at little birds,
charging shrubs and stabbing the earth with Emma's alpenstock,
immolating snails, rolling rocks down precipitous parts of the hill, and
otherwise exhibiting a tendency to sport with Nature--all of which he
did to music whistled by himself, and in happy forgetfulness of
everything save the business in hand. He was engaged in some apparently
difficult piece of fancy work, involving large boulders, when Lewis drew
attention to him.
"What can the imp be up to?" he said.
"Most likely worrying some poor reptile to death," said the artist,
removing his conical wideawake and fanning himself therewith. (Mr
Slingsby was very warm, his slender frame not being equal to his
indomitable spirit.)
"I think he is trying to break your alpenstock, Emma," observed Lewis.
There seemed to be truth in this, for Gillie, having fixed the staff as
a lever, was pulling at it with all his might. The projection of rock
on which he stood, and which overhung the zigzag road, was partially
concealed by bushes, so that the precise intention of his efforts could
not be discovered.
At that moment Antoine, the guide, turned to see what detained the
party, and instantly uttered a loud shout of alarm as he ran back to
them.
The warning or remonstrance came too late. Gillie had loosened an
enormous rock which had been on the point of falling, and with a throb
of exultation, which found vent in a suppressed squeal, he hurled a
mass, something about the size and weight of a cart of coals, down the
precipice.
But the current of Gillie's feelings was rudely changed when a shriek
from the ladies, and something between a roar and a yell from the
gentlemen, told that they had observed a man with a mule, who, in
ascending from the valley, had reached a spot which lay in the direct
line of the miniature avalanche; and when the muleteer, also observing
the missile, added a hideous howl to the chorus, the poor urchin shrank
back appalled. The rock struck the track directly behind the mule with
a force which, had it been expended only six inches more to the right,
would have driven that creature's hind legs into the earth as if they
had been tenpenny nails; it then bounded clear over the next turning of
the track, crashed madly through several bushes, overturned five or six
trees, knocked into atoms a sister rock which had taken the same leap
some ages before, and finally, leaving behind it a grand tail of dust
and _debris_, rolled to its rest upon the plain.
At the first symptom of the danger, Captain Wopper had rushed towards
the culprit.
"Rascal!" he growled between his teeth, as he seized Gillie by the nape
of the neck, lifted him almost off his legs, and shook him, "d'ee see
what you've done?"
He thrust the urchin partially over the precipice, and pointed to the
man and the mule.
"Please, I _haven't_ done it," pleaded Gillie.
"But you did your best to--you--you small--there!"
He finished off the sentence with an open-handed whack that aroused the
echoes of Mont Blanc, and cast the culprit adrift.
"Now, look 'ee, lad," said the Captain, with impressive solemnity, "if
you ever go to chuck stones like that over the precipices of this here
mountain again, I'll chuck you over after 'em. D'ee hear?"
"Yes, Cappen," grumbled Gillie, rubbing himself, "but if you do, it's
murder. No jury of Englishmen would think of recommendin' you to mercy
in the succumstances. You'd be sure to swing--an' I--I could wish you a
better fate."
The Captain did not wait to hear the boy's good wishes, but hastened to
rejoin his friends, while Gillie followed in rear, commenting audibly on
the recent incident.
"Well, well," he said, thrusting both hands deep into bush
trouser-pockets, according to custom when in a moralising frame of mind,
"who'd a thought it, Gillie White, that you'd 'ave bin brought all the
way from London to the Halps to make such a close shave o' committin'
man-slaughter to say nothin' of mule-slaughter, and to git whacked by
your best friend? Oh! Cappen, Cappen, I couldn't 'ave believed it of
you if I 'adn't felt it. But, I say, Gillie, _wasn't_ it a big 'un?
Ha! ha! The Cappen threatened to chuck me over the precipice, but I've
chucked over a wopper that beats _him_ all to sticks. Hallo! I say
that's worthy of _Punch_. P'r'aps I'll be a contributor to it w'en I
gets back from Zwizzerland, if I ever does get back, vich is by no means
certain. Susan, my girl, I'll 'ave summat to enliven you with this
evenin'."
We need scarcely say that this last remark had reference to Mrs
Stoutley's maid, with whom the boy had become a great favourite. Indeed
the regard was mutual, though there was this difference about it, that
Susan, being two years older than Gillie, and tall as well as womanly
for her age, looked upon the boy as a precocious little oddity, whereas
Gillie, esteeming himself a man--"all but"--regarded Susan with the
powerful feelings of a first affection.
From this, and what has been already said, it will be apparent to our
fair readers that Cupid had accompanied Mrs Stoutley's party to
Chamouni, with the intention apparently of amusing himself as well as
interfering with Captain Wopper's matrimonial designs.
The road to the Montanvert is a broad and easy bridle-path, which, after
leaving the valley, traverses a pine-forest in its ascent and becomes in
places somewhat steep. Here and there a zigzag is found necessary, and
in several places there are tracks of avalanches. About half-way up
there is a spring named the Caillet which was shaded by trees in days of
yore, but the avalanches have swept these away. Beside the spring of
pure water there was a spring of "fire-water," in a hut where so-called
"refreshments" might also be obtained. As none of our party deemed it
necessary to stimulate powers, which, at that time of the day, were
fresh and vigorous, they passed this point of temptation without
halting.
Other temptations, however, were not so easily resisted. The Professor
was stopped by rocky stratifications, the ladies were stopped by flowers
and views, the younger gentlemen were of course stopped by the ladies,
and the mad artist was stopped by everything. Poor Mr Slingsby, who
had been asked to join the party, in virtue of his being a friend of the
Count, and, therefore, of Nita, was so torn by the conflict resulting
from his desire to cultivate Nita, and cut out Lewis and Lawrence, and
his desire to prosecute his beloved art, that he became madder than
usual. "Splendid foregrounds" met him at every turn; "lovely
middle-distances" chained him in everywhere; "enchanting backgrounds"
beset him on all sides; gorgeous colours dazzled him above and below;
and Nita's black eyes pierced him continually through and through. It
was terrible! He was constantly getting into positions of danger--going
out on ledges to obtain particular views, rolling his large eyes,
pulling off his hat and tossing back his long hair, so as to drink in
more thoroughly the beauties around him, and clambering up precipices to
fetch down bunches of wild flowers when Nita chanced to express the most
distant allusion to, or admiration of, them.
"He will leave his bones in one crevasse!" growled Antoine, on seeing
him rush to a point of vantage, and, for the fiftieth time, squat down
to make a rapid sketch of some "exquisite bit" that had taken his fancy.
"'Tis of no use," he said, on returning to his friends, "I cannot
sketch. The beauties around me are too much for me."
He glanced timidly at Nita, who looked at him boldly, laughed, and
advised him to shut his eyes, so as not to be distracted with such
beauties.
"Impossible; I cannot choose but look. See," he said, pointing backward
to their track, "see what a lovely effect of tender blue and yellow
through yonder opening--"
"D'you mean Gillie?" asked Lewis, with a quiet grin, as that reckless
youth suddenly presented his blue coat and yellow buttons in the very
opening referred to.
The laugh called forth by this was checked by the voice of Captain
Wopper, who was far in advance shouting to them to come on.
A few minutes more, and the whole party stood on the Montanvert beside
the small inn which has been erected there for the use of summer
tourists, and from which point the great glacier broke for the first
time in all its grandeur, on their view.
Well might Emma and Nita stand entranced for some time, unable to find
utterance to their feelings, save in the one word--wonderful! Even
Slingsby's mercurial spirit was awed into silence, for, straight before
them, the white and frozen billows of the Mer de Glace stretched for
miles away up into the gorges of the giant hills until lost in and
mingled with the clouds of heaven.