There was no doubt about Melchior's willingness to make a fresh start
that day; but none was made, Dale being of the opinion that a quiet rest
in the neighbourhood of the camp would be of advantage to all concerned.
"Rest our bodies and our nerves too, Saxe," he said. "I am pretty
strong in mind and muscle, but yesterday's business shook me in both. I
can see it all constantly; and as for my arms, the strain upon them was
terrific."
"The herr is stopping about the tent to-day," said Melchior to Saxe the
first time he could get him alone, "because he thinks I am too weak to
go forward, and because he does not trust me as he did before. It is
cruel of him, and he is mistaken. I had an accident, of course; but so
do the best guides upon the mountains have accidents."
"You are quite wrong," replied Saxe, and he repeated all that Dale had
said; but the guide did not seem to be satisfied, for he shook his head
solemnly, and went about smoking his big pipe, looking despondent in the
extreme; while the others spent the morning chipping the stones in
search of minerals that might prove interesting, and of the various
Alpine plants that luxuriated in the sheltered corners and ravines
facing the south.
They had been collecting for some little time, when Saxe suddenly
exclaimed--
"Well, I am disappointed!"
"What, at not going on some wild expedition to-day?"
"No: with these stones and flowers."
"Why?" said Dale.
"Because there's nothing fresh. I've seen plants like that in Cornwall,
and limestone like that in Yorkshire."
"Not exactly like it, boy; say similar."
"Well, granite and limestone, then."
"So you would, my lad, all over the world--Asia, Africa or America."
"But I expected something so different; and I thought we were going to
get magnificent great crystals, and I haven't seen any yet."
"Did you expect to see them tumbling about anywhere on the mountain
side, sir?"
"I thought they would be plentiful."
"I did not. I fully expected that we should have a good deal of
difficulty in finding them. If they were easily found, they would be
common and of no value. Wait a bit, and I dare say we shall discover a
crystal cavern yet."
"Well, then, the flowers and moss: I expected to find all kinds of fresh
things."
"Did you?"
"Yes, of course--all foreign. Why, look at those! I've seen lots of
them at home in gardens."
"Gentians? Oh yes."
"And that patch of old monkshood," Saxe continued, pointing to a slope
dotted with the dark blue flowers of the aconite. "Why, you can see
that in nearly every cottage garden at home. Here's another plant,
too--I don't know its name."
"Centaurea."
"You can see that everywhere; and these bluebell-harebell-campanula
things, and the dandelion blossoms, and the whortleberry and hogweed and
wild parsley stuff: you see them all at home."
"Anything else?"
"Oh yes: the fir trees down below, and the ash and birch and oak and
willow, and all the rest of it. I thought all the trees and flowers
would be foreign; and there's nothing strange about them anywhere, only
that they grow close to the ice."
"Humph!" ejaculated Dale, as he pressed an orange hawkweed between two
pieces of paper; "has it never occurred to your wise young head that
these things are common at home because they have been brought from
places like this?"
"Eh?"
"Have you not heard about Alpine plants?"
"Oh yes. Aunt Ellen has lots in her garden, I know, because they are so
like my name--Saxe something."
"Saxifrages. There are any number of them about here, from some so tiny
you can hardly see them to others with great bell flowers and broad
leaves. I'm afraid if you went to the tropics Saxe, you would find
fault with the plants there, because you had seen so many of them at
home in England. Now, let's sit down and rest here, and look at the
mountains! I never tire of watching their snow peaks, ridges and
hollows, with their dazzling snow."
"Yes, it's very beautiful; but I want to climb up some more of them."
"In spite of the risks?"
"Oh, we must be more careful, and pick fine days."
Dale smiled.
"You must have a chat with Melchior about that. Do you know that is
almost impossible to pick what you call a fine day?"
"No," said Saxe. "I should not have thought it was. Why can't you
choose one?"
"Because the higher you are up the more risk there is of change. Now,
look here: what sort of a day would you call this?"
"Surely just the day for ascending a peak."
"Yes, I knew you would say that; but look up yonder," and he pointed
toward the summit of the highest mountain near.
"Yes, I can see. What a lovely slope of snow, with a few clouds
floating by!"
"To us, Saxe; but if we were up there, we should be in a mist, with the
weather intensely cold and a wind blowing so hard that it would be
unsafe to climb."
"What, up there?--now?" cried Saxe wonderingly.
"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!" ejaculated 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 crevasse 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 butter 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 crevasses 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 mass of worn ice fell crashing 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 crevasse, 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."
The block they turned over was roughly cylindrical, and turned over
pretty readily upon their using their axe handles as levers, and at last
they had it close to the brink of the awful chasm, and paused for a few
moments.
"No fear of its hurting any one--eh, Saxe?" said Dale; but he spoke
seriously, for the terrible nature of the place impressed him, and
before going farther the two again peered down into the awful gulf.
The effect was the same on each--a peculiar shrinking, as the thought
came--"Suppose I were to fall?"
"Well, Saxe," said Dale, "shall we push the piece down?"
Saxe nodded, and placed the handle of his axe under the block. Dale did
the same. They raised their hands together, and the great block went
over and dropped out of sight, while they stood listening and waiting
for the heavy bellowing crash, which seemed as if it would never come,
and then far exceeded in violence anything they had imagined.
"It isn't stupid is it, to feel a bit frightened of such a place?" said
Saxe, with his face all in wrinkles.
"I should say the person must be very dense and stupid who is not
frightened of such an awful place. Here, let's get on: it seems rather
waste of time to spend it going to these crevasses again; but it is
interesting all the same."
They started upward now, and went nearly exactly over the same ground as
before, till the upper crevasse was reached; and after going through the
same performance of sending down a block of ice, Dale suggested that as
it would be unwise to go farther up the glacier, here covered with snow,
without the help of the guide, they should make for the side of the
gorge, and at the first opening climb up and make their way over the
lower slopes of the mountain, and so back to camp.