The Crystal Hunters Part 5

"Like to go in any farther, Saxe?" said Dale.

"Yes, much--very much," said the lad, in a low voice, "just because I don't want to."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I can't exactly explain it, because the place makes me feel nervous and a little shrinking, but I want to try and get over it."

"Better not stay any longer, herr," said the guide; "you are hot with walking, and the place is damp and cold."

"Yes, it would be wiser to go out in the sunshine again. I should like to explore this, though, with a lantern and candles."

"Whenever the herr likes," said the guide quietly. And they pa.s.sed out again, the icy arch above them looking exquisitely beautiful with its blue tints, some of which were of the delicious brilliancy to be seen in some of our precious stones.

It was a wonderful change from the cool gloom of the cavern to the glaring sunshine outside, where the heat was reflected from the ice and glistening rocks; and now, striking up to the right, Melchior made for where the ice ended and the steep slope-up of the valley side began.

Here with a little difficulty they mounted--sometimes the rock growing too steep and the ice appearing the easier path, then the reverse, till at last they stood well up on the surface of the frozen river and began its toilsome ascent.

"Now you'll find the advantage of your big-nailed boots, Saxe," said his leader merrily. "Go cautiously, my lad; we mustn't spoil our explorations by getting sprained ankles."

The warning was necessary, for the ice surface was broken up into ruts, hollows, folds, and crags that required great caution, and proved to be laborious in the extreme to surmount.

"Is there much more of this rough stuff?" said Saxe, after half an hour's climbing.

The guide smiled.

"The ice gets bigger and wilder higher up," he replied. "There are smooth patches, but it is broken up into crags and seracs."

This was another surprise to Saxe, to whom the surface of the glacier, when seen from above on the bluff, had looked fairly smooth--just, in fact, one great winding ma.s.s of ice flowing down in a curve to the foot.

He was not prepared for the chaos of worn, tumbled and crushed-up ma.s.ses, among which the guide led the way. Some parts that were smoother were worn and channelled by the running water, which rushed in all directions, mostly off the roughly curved centre to the sides, where it made its way to the river beneath.

It was quite a wonderland to the boy fresh from town, entering the icy strongholds of nature; for, after ascending a little farther, their way was barred by jagged and pinnacled ma.s.ses heaped together in the wildest confusion, many of the fragments being thirty, even forty feet high.

"Have we got to climb those?" said Saxe, in dismay.

The guide shook his head.

"No, herr: it would be madness to try. Some of them would give way at the least touch. Stand back a little, and I'll show you why it is dangerous to climb among the seracs."

He stepped aside, and, using his axe, deftly chipped off a piece of ice from a block--a fragment about as large as an ordinary paving-stone.

"Hold my axe, sir," he said; and on Saxe taking it, the man picked up the block he had chipped off, walked a little way from them, and, after looking about a little, signed to them to watch, as he hurled the lump from him, after raising it above his head. As he threw it, he ran back toward them, and the piece fell with a crash between two spires which projected from the icy barrier.

There was a crash, and then the effect was startling. Both the spires, whose bases must have been worn nearly through by the action of sun and water, came down with a roar, bringing other fragments with them, and leaving more looking as if they were tottering to their fall.

Then up rose what seemed to be a cloud of diamond dust, glittering in the bright sunshine, a faint echo or two came from high up the rocky face of the valley, and then all was silent once more.

"You see?" said Melchior. "Why, often a touch of a hand, or even a shout, will bring them tumbling down. Always keep away from the seracs."

He led them now at a safe distance across the glacier to the left, till a wide opening presented itself, through which they pa.s.sed on to comparatively smooth ice; but even this was all piled together, wedged in blocks, which made the party seem, as Saxe said, like so many ants walking about in a barrel of loaf sugar.

Then there was a smoother stretch, all longitudinal furrows, up which they pa.s.sed fairly well--that is to say, with only a few falls--till they went round a curve; and there they paused, breathless and wondering.

"Why, that was only a peep down below," cried Saxe. "Look, Mr Dale!

look!"

He had cause to exclaim, for from where they stood they had an opening before them right up a side valley running off from the glacier at a sharp angle. This, too, was filled by a glacier, a tributary of the one they were upon, and with the sides of the minor valley covered with snow wherever the slope was sufficient to hold it. Beyond rose peak after peak, flashing pure and white--higher and higher; and even the hollows between them filled with soft-looking pillows and cushions of dazzling snow.

"Those are the mountains you told me about, then?" cried Saxe.

"Some of the outposts, lad. There are others far greater, miles behind those; and you are now having your first genuine look into wonderland."

"I never thought it was like this."

"No one can imagine how wonderful the mountains are," said the guide solemnly. "I looked up at them as a little child, and I have been up amongst them from a boy, while I am now thirty-five; and yet they are always changing and ever new. Sometimes they are all light and sunshine, though full of hidden dangers. Sometimes they are wild and black and angry, when the wind shrieks and the lightning flashes about their shattered heads, and the thunders roar. Yes, young herr, you never thought it was half so wonderful as this. Shall we go on?"

"I was thinking," said Dale. "I only meant to come a little way to-day, and let my companion have a glimpse of what is before him; so we will not go much farther, as it is so far back to the chalet."

"If the herr does not mind simple fare and a bed of clean hay, we could sleep at Andregg's to-night, and be ready for a start in the morning early."

"The very thing," said Dale. "How long will it take us to get from here to Andregg's?"

"An hour," said the guide; "so we have several good hours before us to go on up the glacier, or to cross over the valley ridge, and come back down the next."

"Can we go up the glacier for another mile," said Dale, "and then cross?"

"Easily."

"Then we will do that."

The ascent of the glacier-filled valley was continued, and they toiled on. A mile on level ground would have meant a sharp quarter of an hour's walk; here it meant a slow climb, slipping and floundering over ice, splashing through tiny rivulets that veined the more level parts, and the avoidance of transverse cracks extending for a few yards.

Sometimes they had to make for the left, sometimes the right bank of the frozen river; and at last, as they were standing waiting while the guide made his observations as to the best way of avoiding some obstacle in their front, there was a sharp, clear crack.

"What's that?" said Saxe quickly.

"Stand back!" cried the guide. "No! quick--to me!"

They stepped forward to his side; and as, in obedience to a sign, they turned, there was a peculiarly harsh, rending noise, a singing as of escaping air, and to their astonishment, just where they had been standing the ice began to open in a curious, wavy, zigzag line, gradually extending to right and left. At first it was a faint crack, not much more than large enough to admit a knife-blade; but as they watched it slowly opened, till it was an inch--a foot--across, and then all sound ceased, and they could look down for a short distance before the sides came together, the whole forming a long wedge-shaped hollow.

"The opening of a creva.s.se," said the guide gravely. "It will go on growing bigger, till it will be dangerous."

"You are lucky, Saxe," said Dale. "You have had a fall of rock, seen an ice-cave and the birth of a big river, heard seracs fall, and now watched the opening of a creva.s.se. We must have that avalanche before we go back."

"When we get up on the ridge we shall see the Bluthenhorn," said Melchior; "the afternoon sun will be full on the high slopes, and we shall hear some of the ice-fall. Hark!"

He held up his hand, and they stood listening to a faintly booming sound, evidently at a great distance before them.

"Was that one?"