CHAPTER FOUR.
ON THE ROPE.
"I say," cried Saxe, after they had gone on crunching through the snow,which was soft and melting fast.
"Yes: what is it?"
"Don't you feel as if we were horses haltered together for market?"
"I might answer, sir--Don't you feel like a donkey being led?"
"No. Why?"
"Because you ask such an absurd, childish question, and that at aserious time."
Saxe was silent.
"Mr Dale needn't be so gruff," he said to himself, as he tramped on,looking up at the rocky sides of the valley, which grew more and moresnow-clad as they went on, and giving himself greater trouble by missingthe footsteps of his leaders. Once he nearly stumbled and fell, givinga jerk to the rope; but he recovered himself directly, and tramped on insilence, finding the going so arduous that he began to wish for the timewhen they would leave the glacier and take to the rocks.
But he could not keep silence long.
"Shall we have to go back along the mountain?" he said. "Or will therebe some other track?"
"I expect we shall cross the ridge into a similar valley to this, and godown another glacier; but--Ah! Hold tight!"
He threw himself backward, tightening the rope, and as soon as he couldget over his surprise at the suddenness of the accident, Saxe followedhis companion's example. For all at once Melchior disappeared, passingthrough the snow, and a hollow, echoing, rushing noise fell upon theirears.
"Haul away, gentlemen!" cried the guide's voice; and as they dragged atthe rope, they saw his arms appear with the ice-axe, which was struckdown into the snow, and directly after the man climbed out, rose fromhis hands and knees, and shook the snow off his clothes.
"We wanted the rope, you see," he said quietly. "I ought to have knownby the snow that this part was dangerous. No harm done, gentlemen.Let's strike off for the side."
"But you went through," said Saxe excitedly. "Was it a crevasse?"
"Yes, of course," said the guide, smiling.
"Was it deep?"
"Deep? Oh yes! Would you like to look?"
Saxe nodded, and the guide drew back for him to pass, but took hold ofthe rope and held it tightly.
"Go on," he said encouragingly. "I have you fast."
"But how near can I go?" said Saxe, hesitating.
"Nearly to where I broke through the snow crust. You will see."
Saxe went on cautiously, still seeing nothing till he was close upon thehole, which was a fairly wide opening, a quantity of half-frozen snowhaving given way as the guide's weight rested upon it, and dropped intothe black-looking rift, which was lightly bridged over on either side bythe snow.
"Lean over if you like, and hang on by the rope," said Melchior, "if youwant to look down."
Saxe could not say he did not want to look down, for there was a strangefascination about the place which seemed to draw him. But he resisted,and after a quick glance at the thick snow which arched over thecrevasse, he drew back; and Melchior led on again, striking the shaft ofhis ice-axe handle down through the crust before him at every step, anddivining, by long practice and the colour of the snow, the direction ofthe crevasse so well, that he only once diverged from the edgesufficiently for the handle to go right down.
"We can cross here," he said at last.
"Are you sure?" said Dale.
The guide smiled, and stamped heavily right across.
"We are beyond the end of the crevasse," he said; and once more theywent on upward.
"These cracks make the glacier very dangerous," observed Dale, after afew minutes.
"Not with a rope and care," said Melchior, as he trudged on, shoutinghis words and not turning his head. "But what will you? See how mucheasier it is. It would take us hours longer to keep to the rocks.There is a crevasse here: walk lightly--just in my steps."
They followed him carefully, without realising when they were passingover the opening, the difference in the appearance of the snow beingonly plain to the guide; and then onward again till the place wasopposite to them where they were to leave the ice river and climb to therocks.
"One moment," said Dale: "let's take one look round before we leave thispart. Look, Saxe! the view is magnificent."
"Yes; and you can see better from here," cried the boy enthusiastically,as he stepped forward a few yards.
"Ah! not that way!" cried Melchior.
The warning came too late, for Saxe dropped through suddenly, tighteningthe rope with a jerk which threw Dale forward upon his face, and drewhim a little way on toward the crevasse, whose slight covering of snowhad given way.
But Melchior threw himself back, and stopped farther progress, as Saxe'svoice came up from below in a smothered way--
"Ahoy! Help! help!"
"Get to your feet," cried Melchior to Dale; "I'll keep the rope tight."
"Yes," cried Dale, scrambling up; "now, quick!--both together, to drawhim out."
"Draw him out? No," said the guide quietly. "Now plant your feetfirmly, and hold him till I come to your side."
Dale obeyed at once, and shouting to Saxe that help was coming, he stoodfast, waiting for the guide.
Meanwhile, Saxe, who had felt the snow suddenly drop from beneath him,and had been brought up breathlessly with a sudden jerk, was swingingslowly to and fro, clinging with both hands to the rope, and tryingvainly to get a rest for his feet on the smooth wall of ice, over whichhis toes glided whenever he could catch it; but this was not often, forthe ice receded, and in consequence he hung so clear, that the lineturned with him, and he was at times with his back to the side fromwhich the rope was strained, gazing at the dimly-seen opposite wall,some six or seven feet away. Above was the over-arching snow, whichlooked fragile in the extreme.
Far below him as he fell he heard the snow and ice he had broken away gohissing and whispering down for what seemed long after he had dropped;and this gave him some idea of the terrible depth of the ice crack, anda cold chill, that was not caused by the icy coldness of the place, ranthrough him, as he wondered whether the rope, which now looked thin andworn, would hold. Then he thought that it might possibly cut againstthe sharp edge, and after a sharp glance upward, to see nothing but theblue sky, he could not keep from looking down into the black depths andlistening to the faint musical gurgle of running water.
He shuddered as he slowly turned, and then strained his ears to try andmake out what his companion and the guide were doing. But he could hearnothing for some minutes. Then there was a vibration of the rope, and aslight jerking sensation, and to his horror he found that he was beinglowered down.
Saxe was as brave as most boys of his years, but this was too much forhim. It struck him at first that he was being lowered; but the nextmoment it seemed to be so much without reason that he jumped to theconclusion that the rope was slowly unravelling and coming to pieces.
An absurd notion, but in the supreme moments of great danger peoplesometimes think wild things.
He was just in the agony of this imagination, when the small patch oflight twenty feet above him was darkened, and he saw the head andshoulders of Melchior, as the man, trusting to the strain upon the ropemaintained by Dale, leaned forward.
"Can you help yourself at all?" he said quietly.
"No, no!" cried Saxe hoarsely.
"Be cool, my lad," said Melchior. "I shall drive the head of my axeinto the ice, and leave the handle so that you can grasp it when you aredrawn up."
Saxe made no reply, but he heard a dull sound, and directly after therope began to move, and he knew by the jerks that it was being hauled inhand-over-hand by the guide.
A minute later, and the lad's head was level with the snow, and he sawthe handle of the ice-axe, which he grasped. But it was almostneedless, for Melchior caught him by the portion of the rope which wasround his chest, and by a quick exercise of his great strength raisedhim right out of the crevasse, to stand trembling there, as Dale now ranup and grasped his
hand.
"Saxe, my boy! What an escape!"
"Oh no," said the guide quickly. "It was nothing. The rope is good andstrong, and all we had to do was to draw him out. It would have beendangerous for one man--he would have died--but we are three, and we helpeach other; so it is nothing."
The two travellers exchanged glances, wondering at the man's coolness;but they were given no time to think, for Melchior quickly examined theknots of the rope which secured it about Saxe's chest, and strode onagain, so that they were obliged to follow.
A few minutes later they had reached the rocky side of the glaciervalley, and a stiff ascent was before them. Here they found more thanever the value of their guide, for his climbing powers seemed almostmarvellous, while almost by instinct he selected the easiest route.
But the easiest was very hard, and every now and then he threw himselfback against the rock in difficult places, planted his feet firmly wideapart, and steadily hauled upon the rope, making the ascent of theothers much more facile than it would have been.
This was repeated again and again till they had reached the top of theridge, which had seemed the summit from below on the ice; but here afresh slope met their eyes, and Melchior made straight for a rift whichran up into the mountain, and, being full of snow, looked at a distancelike a waterfall.
"We will go up this couloir," he said; "it will be the best, and it willgive the young herr his first lesson in climbing snow."
"But we have been climbing snow," said Saxe, whose trepidation had nowpassed off, and who was feeling once more himself.
"Walking upon it," said the guide, smiling; "not climbing."
"Rather a steep bit, isn't it, Melchior?" said Dale, looking upward.
"Yes, it is steep; but we can do it, and if we slip it will only be aglissade down here again. The rocks are harder to climb, and a slipthere would be bad; besides, the stones fall here sometimes ratherthickly."
"But they'll be worse down that couloir," said Dale.
"As bad--not worse, herr; but I will go which way you like."
"Go the best way," said Dale quietly.
Melchior nodded, and strode on at once for the foot of the narrow rift,which looked like a gully or shoot, down which the snow fell from above.
"Use my steps," he said quietly; and, with the rope still attached, hebegan to ascend, kicking his feet into the soft snow as he went on, andsending it flying and rushing down, sparkling in the sunshine, while theothers followed his zigzag track with care. There were times when thefoothold gave way, but there was no element of danger in the ascent,which did not prove to be so steep as it had looked before it wasattacked. But the ascent was long, and the couloir curved round as theyclimbed higher, displaying a fresh length of ascent invisible frombelow.
As they turned the corner Melchior paused for them to look about them,and upward toward where the gully ended in a large field of snow, aboveand beyond which was steeply scarped mountain, rising higher and highertoward a distant snowy peak.
"But we are not going right up that mountain, are we?" cried Saxe,panting and breathless.
"Not to-day," replied the guide. "No: up to the snow yonder, and alongits edge for a little way, and then we descend on the other side, whereit will be all downward to Andregg's chalet. Hah! Down close! Quick!"
He set the example, flinging himself upon his face and extending hishands above his head, as a whizzing sound was heard; then a dull thud ortwo and directly after there was a crash on the rocky side of thecouloir a few feet above their heads, followed by a shower of slatyfragments which fell upon them, while a great fragment, which had becomedetached far above, glanced off, struck the other side of the gully, andthen went downward, ploughing up the snow.
"Take care!" again cried the guide. "No," he said directly after, "itis only a few bits."
The few consisted of what might easily have been a cartload of snow,which passed them with a rush, fortunately on the opposite side of thegully.
"I say, Mr Dale," said Saxe, rather nervously, "if that piece of slatehad hit either of us--"
"Hah!" ejaculated Dale, drawing in his breath with a hiss, "if it hadhit us--"
They neither of them finished their sentence; and just then Melchiorstarted once more, lessening the difficulty of the ascent by zigzaggingthe way.
Snow was dislodged, and went gliding down the gully, and for a moment agreat patch began to slide, taking Dale with it, but a few rapid leapscarried him beyond it; and tightening the rope as soon as he had reacheda firm place, Saxe was able to pick his way after the snow had gone byhim with a rush, but only to stop a little lower down.
Another climb of about a quarter of an hour's duration brought them tothe edge of the field of snow, which Melchior examined pretty carefully,and ended by rejecting in favour of a rugged ridge of rocks, which theyhad hardly reached when there was a quick roar like thunder, and theguide cried sharply--
"Look!"
He pointed upward toward the snow peaks, which seemed to be a couple ofmiles away; and as they followed the direction of his pointing hand,toward quite a chaos of rock and ice to their left, and about half-wayto the summit, they looked in vain, till Dale cried--
"There it is!"
"Yes: what?" cried Saxe eagerly. "Oh, I see: that little waterfall!"
For far away there was the semblance of a cascade, pouring over the edgeof a black rock, and falling what seemed to be a hundred feet into ahollow, glittering brilliantly the while in the sun.
They watched it for about five minutes; and then, to Saxe's surprise,the fall ceased, but the deep rushing noise, as of water, was stillheard, and suddenly the torrent seemed to gush out below, to the left,and go on again fiercer than ever, but once more to disappear andreappear again and again, till it made one bold leap into a hollow,which apparently communicated with the glacier they had left.
"Hah!" ejaculated Saxe, "it was very beautiful, but--Why, that must havebeen snow! Was that an avalanche?"
"Yes; didn't you understand? That is one of the ice-falls that arealways coming down from above."
"I didn't take it," said Saxe. "Well, it was very pretty, but not muchof it. I should like to see a big one."
Dale looked at Melchior, and smiled.
"He does not grasp the size of things yet," he said. "Why, Saxe, mylad, you heard the clap like thunder when the fall first took place?"
"Yes, of course."
"Then don't you grasp that what looked like a cascade tumbling down washundreds of tons of hard ice and snow in large fragments? Hark! theregoes another."
There was a deeper-toned roar now, and they stood looking up once more,with Saxe troubled by a feeling of awe, as the noise came rumbling andechoing to where they stood.
"That must have been a huge mass down," said Dale at last, after theyhad looked up in vain, expecting some visible token of the avalanche.
"Yes, herr: away over that ridge. The snow falls at this time of theday. We shall not see any of that one. Shall we go on!"
"No, no!" cried Saxe excitedly, "I want to see another one come down.But did you mean there were hundreds of tons in that first one, thatlooked like water?"
"Oh yes--perhaps much more," said Dale. "That fall was a couple ofmiles away."
"Here, let's go on, sir," said Saxe, who seemed to have changed his mindvery suddenly. "It all puzzles me. I dare say I'm very stupid, but Ican't understand it. Perhaps I shall be better after a time."
"It is more than any one can understand, Saxe," said Dale quietly; "andyet, while it is grand beyond imagination, all the scheme of thesemountains, with their ice and snow, is gloriously simple. Yes," headded, with a nod to Melchior, "go on," and an arduous climb followedalong the ridge of rocks, while the sun was reflected with a painfulglare from the snowfield on their left, a gloriously soft curve ofperhaps great depth kept from gliding down into the gorge below by theridge of rocks along which they climbed.
The way was safe enough, save here and there, when Melchior l
ed themalong a ledge from which the slope down was so steep as to be almost aprecipice. But here he always paused and drew in the rope till those inhis charge were close up to him; and on one of these occasions he pattedSaxe on the shoulder, for there had been a narrow piece of about fiftyfeet in length that looked worse at a glance back than in the passing.
"That was good," he said. "Some grown men who call themselves climberswould have hung back from coming."
"That?" said Saxe. "Yes, I suppose it is dangerous, but it didn't seemso then. I didn't think about it, as you and Mr Dale walked so quietlyacross."
"It's the thinking about it is the danger," said Dale quietly."Imagination makes men cowards. But I'm glad you've got such a steadyhead, Saxe."
"But I haven't, sir, for I was horribly frightened when I hung at theend of that rope down in the crevasse."
"You will not be again," said Melchior coolly, for they were now on aslope where the walking was comparatively easy, and they could keeptogether. "The first time I slipped into one I, too, was terriblyfrightened. Now I never think of anything but the rope cutting into mychest and hurting me, and of how soon I can get hold somewhere to easethe strain."
"What!" cried Saxe, staring at the man's cool, matter-of-fact way oftreating such an accident, "do you mean to say I shall ever get to thinknothing of such a thing as that?"
"Oh yes," said Melchior quietly.
"Oh, well, I don't think so," said Saxe. "Oh no. I shall get not tomind walking along precipices, I dare say, but those crevasses--ugh!"
"The young herr will make a fine mountaineer, I am sure," said Melchior."I ought to know. Along here," he added; and, after a few minutes, hestopped at what was quite a jagged rift in the mountain side.
"There is an awkward bit here, herr," he said, "but it will cut off halfan hour's hard walking."
"Down there?" said Saxe, after a glance. "Oh, I say!"
"It is an ugly bit, certainly," said Dale, looking at the guide.
"With a little care it is nothing," said Melchior. "The herr will godown first. He has only to mind where he plants his feet. When hereaches that ledge he will stop till we join him."
As Melchior spoke he unfastened the rope from Dale's breast and placedthe end from his own breast there instead; after which he set himself ina good position by the edge.
"Hadn't we better get the youngster down first?"
"No, herr, you are heavy, and if you slip he can help me to hold you.We can do it easily. Then you will untie yourself, and I can let himdown."
"And what then?" cried Saxe merrily, to conceal a feeling of uneasinessat the awkward descent before him. "Are we to come up again and let youdown?"
"The young herr speaks like a gentleman Irlandais who was with me lastyear. He made John Bulls, his friend said."
"Irish bulls, Melchior," said Dale, smiling.
"Ah, yes, the herr is right, they were Irish bulls; but I do not quiteknow. Are you ready?"
"Yes," said Dale, preparing to descend the precipitous piece.
"Better keep your face to the rock here, herr. Go on. Take hold here,young friend. That's it. The rope just touching, and the hands readyto tighten at the slightest slip. Confidence, herr. But I need notspeak. You can climb."
Dale reached the ledge below without a slip, unfastened the end of therope, and Melchior began to attach it to Saxe.
"But, I say," cried the latter, "how can you get down?"
"There?" said the guide, with a little laugh. "Oh, that is not hardclimbing: I can easily get down there."
"I wish I could without thinking it was terrible," said Saxe to himself,as he prepared in turn to descend, for in spite of the confidence givenby the rope about his chest, he found himself fancying that if the knotcame undone by the jerk he should give it if he slipped from one ofthose awkward pieces of stone, he would go on falling and bounding fromrock to rock till he lay bruised and cut, perhaps killed, at the bottomof the mountain.
"It's no good to stop thinking about it," he muttered; and loweringhimself down, he began to descend steadily, with the feeling of dreadpassing off directly he had started; for the excitement of the work, andthe energy that he had to bring to bear in lowering himself from ledgeto ledge, kept him too busy to think of anything but the task in hand;so that, in what seemed to be an incredibly short space of time, he wasstanding beside Dale.
Then came a warning cry from Melchior, who threw down his end of therope, and directly after began to descend with an ease that robbed histask of all aspect of danger. Every movement was so quietly and easilymade, there was such an elasticity of muscle and absence of strain, thatbefore the man was half down, both Dale and Saxe were wondering how theycould have thought so much of the task, and on Melchior joining them,and after descending a little farther, roping them for other steep bits,they went on easily and well.
And now for about a couple of hours Melchior took them on rapidly downand down and in and out among bluffs and mountain spurs which he seemedto know by heart, though to those with him the place grew moreperplexing at every turn. There was a gloomy look, too, now, in thedepths of the various gorges, which told of the coming of evening,though the various peaks were blazing with orange and gold, and arefulgent hue overspread the western sky.
"Is it much farther?" said Saxe at last. "I am getting so hungry, I canhardly get one leg before the other."
"Farther!" said Melchior, smiling. "Do you not see? Up there to theright is the foot of the glacier; there is the hill from which you sawthe top, and yonder is the patch of forest. Andregg's chalet is justbelow."
"I am glad!" cried Saxe. "I thought I was hungry, but it's tired I am.I shall be too weary to eat."
"Oh no!" said Melchior. "The young herr will eat, and then he willsleep as we sleep here in these mountains, and wake in the morning readyfor another day. The herr still wants to hunt for crystals?" he added,glancing at Dale.
"Yes; if you can take me to them," said the latter eagerly.
"I will try, herr; but they have to be sought in the highest solitudes,on the edge of the precipices, where it is too steep for the snow tostay, and they say that there are spirits and evil demons guarding thecaverns where they lie."
"And do you believe them?" said Saxe sturdily.
"The young herr shall see," replied the guide. "Ah! there is Andregg.The cows have just been brought home, and here come the goats. I heardthe cry in the mountains. We shall have bread and milk and cheese, ifwe have nothing else. Do I believe that about the demons who guard thecrystal caves?" he continued thoughtfully. "Well, the young herr shallsee. Hoi! hola, Andregg! I bring you friends!" he shouted to agrey-haired man standing in the evening twilight, which was decliningfast, just outside the plain brown pine-wood chalet, with two women anda boy leisurely milking cows and goats.
"The herrs are welcome," said the man gravely. "It has been fine amongthe mountains to-day. I was fearing we should have a storm."
The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps Page 4
