The Crystal Hunters Part 37

"Ah! look, Saxe!" cried Dale: "some one's footmark in the pine ash!"

"'Tisn't mine," said Saxe: "it's too big."

"Nor mine," said Dale. "An English boot does not leave a print like that. It's yours, Melchior. A false alarm."

"No, herr--no false alarm," said the guide; and he raised one foot so as to expose the sole. "Look at the open way in which I nail my boots-- with big nails, so that they shall not slip on the rock or ice. That footprint is not mine."

"No: you are right. Then whose could it be?"

Melchior shook his head.

"Some one must have been prowling round the tent in the night."

"It must have been one of Melk's spirits--the one who threw stones at us yesterday. I say, Melk, they wear very big boots."

The guide smiled.

"Yes, herr, it was some one with big boots; and I do not understand it."

Dale's first idea--a natural one under the circ.u.mstances--was that plunder was the object; and he said so.

"No, herr; I do not think there is anybody about here who would steal."

"I'm very glad to hear it," said Dale: "but let's see if anything has gone."

The guide said nothing--only looked on while an examination was made.

"No," said Dale; "I do not miss anything. Yes: my little binocular is missing!"

"No, herr; you put it inside the big basket last night."

"Yes, here it is," cried Saxe.

"Then you are right, Melchior: it could not have been robbery."

"No, herr, it is strange; but I will light the fire and get breakfast."

As he spoke he began kindling some dry stuff he had collected, and shortly after the coffee-pot was promising to boil. Then some bacon was sliced and frizzled, and the appetising odour soon made the memories of the night alarm pa.s.s away in the thoughts of the excellent breakfast, which was finished while the pa.s.s in which they were seated was still grey, though the mountain peaks looked red-hot in the coming sunshine.

"Well, I'm not going to let an incident like that interfere with our progress, Melchior. Where do you propose going next?"

"Up whichever thal the herr chooses, and then up the mountain."

"And not quite over the pa.s.s?"

"No, herr. We are in the highest part here, and we may come upon crystals in any of these solitary peaks."

"Very well; then we'll make a start at any time you like. Do we come back here?"

"No, herr. I propose that we take the mule on to the foot of the Great Oberweiss glacier, an hour from here. There is good camping ground, and then we will go up the mountain by the side of the ice meer."

"And to shake off our stone-throwing friend," said Dale. "Good. We will, and will keep a better look-out for the creva.s.ses this time--eh, Saxe?"

"Yes, and we can try the new rope."

A few minutes sufficed for saddling up the mule with his load, and then they started once more farther into the wilds, in all the glorious beauty of the early summer morning, Melchior leading them in and out through such a labyrinth of cracks and rifts that after some hours'

walking, Saxe glanced at his leader.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering how we could find our way back."

Melchior laughed.

"Oh, easily enough, herr."

"But I couldn't," cried Saxe.

"No, herr. That shows the use of a guide. But I could have come an easier way, only I am taking a short cut. We are a thousand feet higher than when we started. Look, herr: go on by that shelf of rock: it is perfectly safe. Then come back and tell me what you see."

Saxe started forward, from the ragged slope they were ascending; and a minute or two after pa.s.sing quite a mossy niche, which ran some forty or fifty yards right into the mountain, to where a silvery-veil-like cascade fell, he stopped short, threw up his hands, and then turned and signalled to Dale.

"What is it?" cried the latter, as he hurried to the boy's side. "Hah!"

He wanted no explanation, for they were standing at the edge of a precipice, gazing down at another huge glacier, which glittered in the rays of the morning sun--a vast chaos of ice whose cracks and shadows were of a vivid blue; and as they gazed up towards the point where it suddenly curved round an immense b.u.t.tress, there beyond, peak after peak, as far as eye could reach, stood out in the clear air, and all seeming to rise out of the fields and beds of snow which clung around them and filled every ravine and chasm running up from their feet.

"Oh!" cried Saxe--"did you ever see anything so beautiful? Why, the place is all crystals!"

"Grand!" said Dale slowly, as he stood rapt in a reverie of wonder and admiration at the scene before him. "Why, Saxe, we couldn't have had a better guide! We must make a halt here, and begin to explore."

"But you'll go up another mountain?"

"Didn't you have enough of the last?"

"No!" cried the boy excitedly. "I know I was very stupid and clumsy, and wasn't half so brave as I should have liked to be; but I long to begin again."

"Then you shall."

"When? Now?"

"Too late in the day. We'll explore about here first, and if the weather is right we'll make a start to-morrow."

"Oh!" said Saxe in a disappointed tone.

"There--you'll have plenty of work to-day, for we must go down on this wonderful glacier and examine the sides. Look! there's what they call a mill there."

"A mill? I don't see it."

"Moulin. No, no--not a building. That fall, where the water rushes into the creva.s.se you can see. There--up yonder, a quarter of a mile away."