"Hah!" ejaculated Dale, as he watched the strange phenomenon; "people
will talk superstitious nonsense and believe in ghost stories, portents
and other old women's tales. But don't you take any notice of them,
Saxe. They will not do for Englishmen. Why, you have no faith in such
things, Melchior?"
"Not much, herr," said the guide, smiling: "I have seen the `spectre of
the Brocken,' as people call it, twenty times at least. But I do fear
mists."
"Yes; those are real dangers. And you think we shall have them here!"
"Yes, herr. I should like us to descend at once. We can do nothing in
a fog."
"Come along, Saxe: we'll go down."
"Can't--can't we stop a little longer?" said the lad hesitatingly.
"No. You will have plenty more chances of seeing views like this, or
finer. What is it, Melchior?"
"We were forgetting all about the rocks, herr. There are some curious
bits here."
He picked up two or three fragments and handled them, but Dale threw
them aside after a glance.
"Only very fine, hard granite, with scarcely a grain of felspar," he
said. "What about this?"
As he spoke he stooped down over a narrow crevice running up a portion
of the summit.
"Yes. There may be something here, but it would require blasting tools
and power to open it out. Look here, Saxe!"
He pointed to the narrow split, in which it was just possible to get the
end of his ice-axe handle; and as Saxe bent down he saw that the sides
were lined with tiny quartz crystals, which grew bigger lower down.
"I want to find a rift in the mountains leading into a cavern where we
may find crystals worth saving. Yes, Melchior, I will not waste time.
These are of no value. Lead on."
The guide had been giving an anxious look round, for there was a faint
sighing of the wind, and clouds were floating around them now and then,
shutting off the sun.
"I should like to get well down, herr, before the weather changes. The
young herr would find it terribly cold."
"Hadn't we better wait till it gets clearer," said Saxe, "and go down
then?"
"If we did we might not be able to get down at all," said Dale quietly.
"Why?"
"We might be frozen to death. Come, Saxe, you must not be greedy.
You've had a splendid ascent on a lovely day, and you will have others.
Always pay respect to your guide's opinion about the weather. Come
along."
Saxe could hang back no longer, though the sensation of dread he
suffered from was terrible. Try how he would, there was the horror of
that first bit of the descent before him; and, shuddering and feeling
cold, he followed to the edge of the rock where he had found the guide
sitting, and a fresh access of horror came over him as Dale said coolly:
"Now, Melchior, it is your turn to go first and have the use of the
rope. I'll come last."
"We can all use it, herr," said the guide. "It will be quite long
enough if I pass it round this block and let both ends hang down. I can
draw it after us when we are down."
He threw the rope over a great block of granite, and proceeded to draw
it along till the ends were equal, when he lightly twisted the rope and
threw it over the precipice.
"Then I'll go first," said Dale; and, seizing the twisted rope, he
lowered himself over the edge, hung in sight for a few moments, and
then, as soon as his hands were clear of the edge, allowed himself to
slide down, while Saxe's palms felt cold and wet.
He watched the rope intently and strained his ears, and then started,
for Melchior gently laid his hand upon his shoulder.
"What is it?" cried Saxe excitedly. "Has he fallen?"
"No, herr; and nobody is going to fall. You are fancying troubles. I
know. I have not led strangers up the mountains for twenty years
without studying their faces as well as the face of Nature. I can read
yours. You are scarcely yourself, and feeling fear where there is no
need. Come now, take a long breath. Make an effort, and be calm. I'll
draw up the rope and fasten one end round you, and lower you down."
"No," cried Saxe excitedly; "I can get down without. Is he safe yet?"
"Safe? He is down: look at the rope shaking. Shall I draw it up?"
For answer Saxe stooped down, and rose again to get his ice-axe well
behind him in his belt. Then he stooped again, seized the lightly
twisted rope, lay down upon his chest, thrust his legs over the edge of
the precipice, worked himself back till he was clear, and began to glide
slowly down.
He shuddered, for the rope began to twist; and directly after, instead
of gazing at the rough granite rock, he was facing outward, and gazing
wildly down at the step-like series of precipices below.
"Not too fast," came from Dale; and this brought him back to his
position, and, twisting his legs about the double rope, he slipped down
more slowly, wondering the while why the rope had ceased to turn and
swing, till he saw that it was being held tightly now.
"Well done!" cried Dale: "you are getting quite at home at it. Right!"
he shouted to Melchior, whose two legs appeared directly after, then his
body, and he slid down rapidly, as if it were one of the most simple
things in the world--as it really was, save that, instead of being close
to the level, it was twelve thousand feet above.
As Melchior joined them, he rapidly untwisted the rope, held the two
ends apart, and, as he drew with his left, he sent a wave along from his
right, and threw the end up, with the result that the rope came away
easily, and was rapidly coiled up.
The mists were collecting on the summit as they reached the snow bed,
but they followed their old track easily enough; and when at last, in
what seemed to be a surprisingly short space of time, they came to the
head of the arete, the white, spectral looking fog was creeping down in
long-drawn wreaths, toward which Melchior kept turning his eyes.
"Look as if they will catch us soon," said Dale quietly.
"Pray Heaven they may not till we are clear of this ridge, herr!" said
the guide piously. "Now, quick--the rope! You will go first."
The rope was rapidly attached, and, as Dale started to descend, it
seemed to Saxe that he was disappearing over the edge of a precipice;
and as this was repeated again and again while they reversed the way by
which they had ascended, the guide sitting fast and holding on till they
were down, the place seemed far more terrible, and the snow slopes on
either side almost perpendicular.
They made good way, however, Melchior keeping on inciting them to fresh
exertion.
"Go on, gentlemen--go on!" he said. "I have you safe. The rope is
good. Go on, herrs--go on!"
But the descent over those rugged knife-edged ridges was so perilous,
that Dale went slowly and cautiously; and when he reached each
stopping-place he held on till Saxe had passed down to him. Once the
boy seemed to totter as he was passing from one of the rocks to the
other, over a patch of snow between them; but the firm strain upon the
rope gave him support, and he reached the rock and began to lower
himself.
In spite of their hastening, that which Melchior had apprehended
happened: a cloud of mist suddenly started in advance of the rest, which
had formed upward, and now completely veiled the summit. This
mist-cloud rolled rapidly down when the party were about two-thirds of
the way down the ridge, and just as Saxe was being lowered down.
An ejaculation from the guide made the lad look up; and he saw the
stern, earnest face for a moment, then the fog rolled over it, and the
guide's voice sounded strange as he shouted:
"Go on, young herr; and directly you reach Mr Dale sit fast. Don't
move."
Five minutes later Melchior was with them, and they crouched together,
partly on rock, partly in snow.
"We must not move, herr," said Melchior. "It is unfortunate, but I was
rather afraid. If it had held off for another quarter of an hour, I
should not have cared."
"Will it last long?" asked Saxe.
"Who can say, herr! Perhaps for days. In the mountains, when the
weather is bad, we can only wait and hope."
"Had we not better try to get down off this edge?"
"As a last resource, if the mist does not lift, herr. But not yet."
Dale uttered an impatient ejaculation; but the guide filled and lit his
pipe, settling himself down quite in the snow.
"Wind may come later on," he said, "and then perhaps we can get down.
It is a pity, for this is the worst place in the whole descent. But
there: the mountains are mountains, and anything is better than an icy
wind, that numbs you so that you cannot stir."
He was scarcely visible, close as he was; but he had hardly finished
speaking when Saxe saw his head, at first faintly, then clearly--for the
cloud of mist had been still descending, and literally rolled down past
them, Saxe himself standing out clear, then Dale, and the rocks below
them one by one as far as the curve permitted them to see.
It was bright sunshine now once more, and as the rays from the west shot
by, it was between two strata of clouds, glorifying that which was below
and lighting up that above.
"Quick, herr!" said Melchior, in an authoritative tone. "We have this
bad piece to finish, if we can, before another cloud rolls down."
The descent was continued, seeming to Saxe almost interminable. Then
they were hurrying along over the snow, after passing the morning's
resting-place, and on and on till the shelf was reached with the
precipice running down so steeply, just as mist came rolling down from
above and also up from the depths below, meeting just where the party
stood roping themselves together.
But, to the surprise of Saxe, the guide took no heed--he merely went on
fastening the rope till he had done.
"You will not venture along that shelf while it is so thick, Melchior?"
said Dale.
"Oh yes, herr. We must not wait here."
"But the danger!"
"There is scarcely any, herr," replied the guide. "The great danger is
of going astray. We cannot go wrong here. We have only to go along the
shelf to the end."
"But it is like going along the edge of a precipice in the dark."
"It is like darkness, and more confusing, herr; but we have the wall on
our left to steady us, and where we are is terribly exposed. Trust me,
sir."
"Forward!" said Dale quietly. "Keep the rope fairly tight."
Melchior stepped at once on to the ledge, and the others followed, all
three going cautiously and very slowly through the opaque mist, which
looked so solid at Saxe's feet that more than once he was ready to make
a false step, while he wondered in himself that he did not feel more
alarm, but attributed the cause rightly to the fact that he could not
see the danger yawning below. To make the passage along this ledge the
more perilous and strange, each was invisible to the other, and their
voices in the awful solitude sounded muffled and strange.
As Saxe stepped cautiously along, feeling his way by the wall and
beating the edge of the precipice with the handle of his ice-axe, he
felt over again the sensations he had had in passing along there that
morning. But the dread was not so keen--only lest there should be a
sudden strain on the rope caused by one of them slipping; and he judged
rightly that, had one of them gone over the precipice here, nothing
could have saved the others, for there was no good hold that they could
seize, to bear up against the sudden jerk.
"Over!" shouted Melchior at last. "Steady, herr--steady! Don't hurry!
That's it: give me your hand."
"I can't see you."
"No? Come along, then, another yard or two: you are not quite off the
ledge. That's it. Safe!"
"And thank goodness!" said Dale, with a sigh of relief, a few minutes
later. "That was worse than ever. Saxe, my lad, you are having a
month's mountaineering crowded into one day."
"Yes, herr," said Melchior; "he is having a very great lesson, and he'll
feel a different person when he lies down to sleep."
"He will if we have anywhere to sleep to-night. It seems to me as if we
must sit under a block of stone and wait until this mist is gone."
"Oh no, herr," said the guide; "we will keep to the rope, and you two
will save me if I get into a bad place. I seem to know this mountain
pretty well now; and, if you recollect, there was nothing very bad. I
think we'll go on, if you please, and try and reach the camp."
"You asked me to trust you," said Dale. "I will. Go on."
"Forward, then; and if I do not hit the snow col I shall find the
valley, and we can journey back."
For the first time Saxe began to feel how utterly exhausted he had
grown. Till now the excitement and heat of the journey had monopolised
all his thoughts; but, as they stumbled on down slope after slope strewn
with debris, or over patches of deep snow, his legs dragged heavily, and
he struck himself awkwardly against blocks of granite that he might have
avoided.
The work was comparatively simple, though. It was downward, and that
must be right unless Melchior led them to the edge of some terrible
precipice right or left of the track they had taken in the morning.
But matters began to go easier and easier, for at the end of another
hour's tramp they suddenly emerged from the mist, coming out below it,
and after a few more dozen steps seeing it like a roof high above their
heads.
Here the guide stopped, mounted a stone, and stood looking about him in
the evening light.
"I see," he cried: "we are not half an hour out of our way. Off to the
right we shall reach the snow, and then our task is done."
Melchior was right: in less than the time he had named they reached the
place where they had left the great snow slope, up which they had had to
zigzag; and after descending it diagonally for some distance, the guide
proposed a glissade.
"The young herr shall come down behind me this time," he said; and after
a few preliminary words of advice they started, and rapidly descended
safely to the debris at the foot of the snow, from which the walk to the
camp was not long.
Melchior soon had a good fire burning, with Gros standing near
contemplating it solemnly, while Dale placed their provisions ready.
"Now, Saxe, my lad," he said, "I congratulate you on your display of
honest English pluck to-day. I don't see that any boy of your age could
have behaved better. Come along: coffee's ready. You must be half
starved."
There was a pause.
"Ready, Melchior?"
"Yes, herr: the coffee smells heavenly, and I have an appetite for
three."
"You shall satisfy it, then. To-morrow we'll go back and fetch all our
traps, and then come over here again; for I do not think we can get a
better part for our search. Come, Saxe, wake up."
But there was no reply: Saxe was sleeping with all his might after the
tremendous exertions of the day.