The Crystal Hunters Part 67

said Saxe, laughing.

The guide looked at him wonderingly. He was very proficient in English, but proverbs puzzled him, and he shook his head.

"Well, then," said Saxe, laughing, "it's of no use to throw away time when we can use it to advantage. Do you understand that!"

"Quite," said Melchior. "We must get a very great load of the crystals to-day, and make sure of them. It will be a splendid find, if we pick the best--grander than has ever been made here before."

"And I discovered them," said Saxe proudly. "Yes, herr; you discovered them," said the guide, smiling. Saxe coloured.

"He's laughing at me," he said to himself, as he hurried on to overtake Dale. "I do wish I was not so conceited."

They had a brief halt at the mouth of the black ravine, toiled up it till they reached Gros's tethering place, and then went on.

"I have been thinking," said Dale, as Saxe climbed on beside him, "that we ought to have swept away all those chips of stone after we opened the place."

"You both thought no one likely to climb up here," replied Saxe.

"Yes: we thought so, Saxe," said Dale rather shortly; and then the toil of the climbing among and over the sharp crags put an end to their conversation, and they kept on till they were beneath the narrow crevice with the fragments of stone chipped out by Melchior lying just as they had been left.

"Now, Melchior," cried Dale; "I will not be avaricious. We'll have one good select load of the crystals, and then make them safe. Up with you!"

Melchior climbed up, fastened the rope to the spike, and then crept inside the grotto with the lanthorn attached to his waist.

"Looks just like a bear going into his den," said Saxe, laughing, as the hind quarters of the guide disappeared.

"Yes. Up with you, and play bear too, or monkey," said Dale, laughing; and with the help of the rope the boy soon reached the opening and crawled in.

Dale followed, and blocked out the light just as Melchior had crept farther in, and was busy opening the lanthorn and striking a match.

"One moment, Melchior," said Dale: "here's a piece of blue light,--let's burn that."

But just as he spoke the match flashed into light, and Melchior dropped it; they heard him scratching at his box, and directly after he struck about half a dozen together, and separated them, so that they burned brightly, holding them high up above his head before taking one to light the wick of the lanthorn.

At the first flash out of the matches Saxe sprang back in horror, and Dale uttered a groan of disappointment. Then there was a dead silence, during which the matches blazed down close to the guide's fingers, and were allowed to fall, while the lanthorn burned more brightly, showing the guide's wrinkled countenance, full of disappointment and despair.

"It's horrible!" cried Saxe wildly. "Oh, if I only knew!"

"Yes, boy: if you only knew," said Dale.

"We must find them."

"No, young herr: it would be waste of time to try. Trust to me; perhaps I can take you to a better grotto yet, and if we do find one, we will live in it till bit by bit the crystals are removed and placed in safety."

"We shall not find such another spot," said Dale sadly.

"The mountains are wonderful and vast, herr. There is the Blitzenhorn yet to try."

"Yes, to try," said Dale sadly. "Oh, but it is maddening just as success had attended us!" and he relapsed into gloomy silence, as Melchior went about the grotto holding the lanthorn to its glittering ceiling, the light flashing from hundreds of crystals; but every one worth taking as a specimen had been removed, and a great rusty hammer with which they had been broken off lay before them, forgotten in their hurry by those who had been there.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

GROWING RESIGNED.

A month had glided by, during which Dale and Saxe had explored valleys, traced glaciers to their sources, and made plenty of mountain ascents; but though they penetrated into the wildest regions of the higher alps, and encountered storm and wind sufficient to tear them from the giddy crags to which they climbed, no more crystals rewarded their efforts, no curiously half-hidden rift fringed with sparkling points invited them to break a way in.

"Why not try the Blitzenhorn, herr?" Melchior would say: "the young herr is getting to be a clever, sure-footed mountaineer now, and I have hopes of our being successful there."

Dale would gaze up at the mighty peak whose icy crown stood up before them, beyond the mountains which surrounded Andregg's hut, and shake his head.

"No," he said: "the climb is too difficult for Saxe."

"Oh no!" cried the boy; "I feel sure I could do it."

"And I feel sure you could not," replied Dale. "Look at it. The snow slopes you could manage; but those black, forbidding, almost perpendicular crags would be too much for you, and that is the part we should have to explore."

"Yes," said Melchior; "certainly that is the part we should have to explore."

"Well, why not let me try!" cried Saxe.

"Wait, my lad--wait."

So their days pa.s.sed on, amidst fine weather and foul; partly-pa.s.sed at Andregg's chalet, partly in the mountains with their tent. They had been again and again to the black ravine, and examined other grottoes, bringing away a good a.s.sortment of crystals, but, as Dale said, there was nothing particular among them; and though they divided their time between trying to make fresh discoveries and tracing the old treasures, the crystals had disappeared as completely as if the legendary spirits of the grots and mines had s.n.a.t.c.hed them back, and hidden them where they would be safe from mortal eyes.

But it was a glorious time, in spite of the disappointment, and Saxe revelled in the wondrous scenery, growing more sure-footed and firm of nerve day by day when in the mountains, and happy and full of fun when back in Andregg's valley, leaving the donkey or his companion Gros, and accompanying heavy, surly, stupid, strong Pierre up the green alps to fetch home the goats and cows, becoming a perfect adept with a great wooden Alpine horn, whose notes evoked wonderful echoes among the mountains which shut them in.

The natural history collection increased--b.u.t.terflies, pressed plants and minerals were stored up; the falls were used for shower-baths; trout caught in the streams and lakes; and time was pa.s.sing, when one evening, as the glorious sky foretold a bright day on the morrow, Dale, who was seated outside Andregg's chalet with Melchior, returned that day from far below with a fresh load of provisions, called Saxe to bring him his field-gla.s.s.

This was brought, and the lad watched him, and saw that he was scanning the Blitzenhorn carefully.

"He means to try it, after all," thought the boy, whose heart began to beat heavily.

"Fine day to-morrow, Melchior," said Dale at last, as he closed the gla.s.s.

"Yes, herr, I think so; though one never knows what changes may come."

"But it is pretty sure to be a good day!"

"Yes, herr."

"Then we'll start at three to ascend the Blitzenhorn, and I hope your prophecies will prove right."

"I hope so, herr. Everything shall be ready. We'll take the mule and tent?"

"No: we'll go in light marching order, and chance it. Let's get to bed at once, and start at two."

"Good, herr. Coffee shall be ready at half-past one."