The Crystal Hunters Part 10

He stopped short, colouring a little; and at that moment he turned sharply, for there was a loud sneeze from below, and directly after a youngish man, with a lowering look and some bits of hay sticking in his hair, came out from the cowhouse and slouched by the front, glancing up with half-shut eyes towards the occupants of the verandah, on his way to a low stone-built shingle-roofed place, from which sundry bleatings told that it was the refuge of the herd of goats.

Saxe was too sleepy to think then, and their host being summoned, he showed them through the chalet into a long low room with a sloping roof and boarded floor, in two corners of which lay a quant.i.ty of clean hay and twigs of some dry heathery-looking plant.

"Gute nacht," he said briefly, and went out, leaving the door open.

"Do we sleep here?" said Saxe, yawning. "No beds no chests of drawers, no washstands, no carpets."

"No, boy: nothing but clean hay and a roof over our heads," replied Dale. "Shall you mind?"

"Mind?" said Saxe, plumping himself down in the hay. "Well, it seems so queer. I can't undress and lie in this stuff: see how it would tickle.

It is pretty soft, though, and--Oh! murder!"

"What's the matter?" cried Dale excitedly: "some insect?"

"No, it's a jolly old stumpy thistle, like the top of a young pineapple.

It did p.r.i.c.k.--Yes, it is pretty soft, and it smells nice, and heigh ho hum! how tired I am!"

"You'll take the other corner, Melchior," said Dale; "I'll lie here.

There is no occasion to fasten the door, I suppose?"

"Fasten the door!" said the guide, with a quiet laugh. "Oh no. The only intruder likely to come is the wind, and he might open it and bang it, but he will not be abroad to-night. Look!"

"Look! what at?"

The guide pointed to the corner where Saxe had lain down, making a pillow of his arm.

Dale smiled.

"Comfortable, Saxe boy?"

There was no reply. The hay made a pleasant, sweetly scented couch.

Saxe was fast asleep.

CHAPTER SIX.

A TRY FOR GOLD.

Strange places bring strange dreams, and often some hours of complete oblivion. Saxe began to dream with all his might. Body and Brain had been having the thorough rest which comes to those who have been walking far in the glorious mountain air; but toward morning Brain woke up and began to act on its own account, while Body lay asleep; and when Brain does this without the balance given by Body, its workings are rather wild.

In this case it began to repeat the adventures of the day before, but in a curiously bizarre manner; and in consequence Saxe found himself being disappointed in the heights of the mountains, which were exceedingly small--mere anthills covered with snow, up which he began to climb so as to stand on their tops; but as he climbed they began to grow, so that there was always a piece more to get up, and so he went on, finding that there was no getting right to the top. Then avalanches began to fall rumbling and roaring down, and covering people at the bottom--hundreds of them, so it seemed to him; and he could hear them moaning under the snow, which by some curious chance of circ.u.mstances was just below him.

But the odd thing was that they did not seem to mind it much, only moaning piteously and impatiently, as if they were in a hurry for a thaw to come and set them free. Then one of them began to ring the bell for dinner; and another did the same; and Saxe felt that he ought to be doing something to take them food to eat--coa.r.s.e bread, b.u.t.ter, cheese like Gruyere, full of holes, and a jug of milk, but he did not do it, and the people went on moaning and ringing the bells.

Then he was high up, watching the waterfalls with the silvery rockets slowly descending, and trailing after them their sparkling spray, which kept lighting up with glorious rainbow colours.

Then he was stepping from stone to stone in the ice-cave below the glacier, listening to the gurgling and whishing of the water as it came rushing down over the grey, dark rock from out the narrow arching tunnel which shut up behind him.

How he got out of that place he did not know; but soon after his eyes were aching with the glare of the snow around him. A huge eagle, a hundred times bigger than the one he had seen, was soaring round and round, and coming lower and lower, till it was so close to him that he could feel the wind of its wings wafted pleasantly over his face. The bird's back was soft and cushiony, and it seemed to be inviting him to take his place upon it for a ride up in the air; and he was thinking of doing so, and gliding off over the silver-topped mountains to look out for caves where they could chip out crystals, and perhaps discover valuable metals; but just as he was about to throw a leg over the feathery saddle and take his seat, there was a fearful yell, that sounded like an accident in a trombone manufactory, where all the instruments had been blown up by an explosion of steam. He was hurled back upon the snow, and held down by some monstrous creature, which planted its feet upon his chest; and the people buried in the snow began to moan more loudly and ring the bells.

Then Saxe opened his eyes, and in his half-awake condition he felt the wafting of the great bird's wings, heard the moaning of the people buried beneath the avalanche, and listened to them ringing the bells in an impatient way.

"What nonsense, to dream such stuff!" he said impatiently. "Why, it's the cows lowing in the place underneath, waiting to be milked, and shaking their bells."

But, all the same, he felt a thrill of horror run through him, and tried to pierce the gloom by which he was surrounded, for certainly something was holding him down with its feet upon his chest, and stooping by him so that he could feel its breath.

The sensation to him was horrible, for it raised its head now, making a strange noise; and he could faintly see by a pencil of light a hideous-looking head, with tall curved horns and a long beard, and though he could not see them, he seemed to feel that a pair of glowing eyes were fixed upon his not a yard away.

There was no time to think or reason in such a position. He could see the head, and feel the pressure of the feet; and he knew that he was not dreaming now. Frightened he was naturally, but he acted at once as a lad of manly character might be expected to act: he struck out with his doubled fist, giving the object a heavy blow just beneath the horns.

The effect was instantaneous. The creature gave a bound, there was a pattering sound on the floor, and something rushed out through the open door, uttering a dismal b-a-a-ah!

"Why, it was a jolly old goat!" said Saxe, half aloud. "I wish I wasn't such a coward."

The next moment he was lying back laughing silently, fully grasping his position now, and listening to a rustling movement away to his left.

"That you, Melchior?" he said.

"Ah, herr: awake? Good morning."

"Not time to get up, is it?"

"Oh yes; it is getting late. Why, it will soon be full day!"

"Oh, will it?" muttered Saxe rather grumpily, for the bed he had despised overnight now seemed temptingly pleasant for another hour or two's snooze. "What nonsense!" he thought. "Soon be day! I hope we are not always going to get up at such ridiculous times. Well, if I'm to get up, he isn't going to be snoozing there."

He leaned over and stretched out his hand; but that was not sufficient, for their bed was wide, and he had to creep a yard or two before he could grasp his companion's shoulder.

"It's to-morrow morning, Mr Dale," he said.

"Eh? yes! All right. Where's Melchior?" cried Dale, springing up.

"Here, herr," said the guide from the door. "A beautiful morning, and I think a fine day."

"That's right," said Dale, shaking the hay from his clothes.

"Shall I ask where the dressing and bath-rooms are?" said Saxe, grinning.

"No," said Dale quietly; "I'll show you."

He led the way out of the chalet, where they met the furtive-looking man they had seen overnight. He gave them another sidelong look, said Guten morgen surlily, and then, as it seemed to Saxe, began to put on his tail--that is to say, he strapped on his one-legged milking-stool, and went to meet one of the cows.

"This way to the bath-room, Saxe," said Dale; and he led the way to the foot of the nearest fall, whose icy water came showering down softly as if it were from a cloud. Here there was a pool of the greatest limpidity, broad, deep, and ground out of the solid rock by the constant dropping that wears a stone.

There were no remains of sleep about Saxe's eyes after his ablutions, and they walked back towards the chalet, meeting Melchior.

"There is some breakfast ready, herr," he said; "and I should like to know whether it would be wise to get your things up here and stay for a few days."

"An excellent proposal; but how are we to get them?"