The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  MELCHIOR GROWS SUSPICIOUS.

  "Hallo! another donkey coming," cried Saxe, and he looked up, and thenat Melchior, who had thrust his pipe into his wallet and was peering upthe sides of the valley.

  "I don't see one," he said; "but there must be something to take thething's attention."

  The mule whinnied again.

  "It is not another mule or donkey," said Melchior, peering upward."They would have answered his challenge. It must be a man."

  He began to climb up to get to a position where he could look up anddown the gorge; while Dale, being more interested in the contents of hispan, went on till he had washed enough, and began now to search forspecks or tiny scales of gold.

  "Must have been some one Gros knew," said the guide to himself, as hestill looked about sharply.

  "Anything the matter, Melchior?" cried Saxe.

  "No, sir, no. I was only trying to make out who was coming up thisway."

  "Not a speck," said Dale, rinsing his pan in the pure water.

  "Will the herr try again?"

  "No, not here," replied Dale. "Let's get on: I'm wasting time."

  "No," said Melchior; "the herr is making his researches into the wondersof Nature. It cannot be waste of time."

  "Well, no, I suppose not, my man. It is all learning. But what was themule whinnying about!"

  "I don't know," replied the guide in a peculiar tone. "It seemed to methat some one he knew was following us."

  "What for?" said Dale.

  "Ah! that I don't know, sir. From curiosity, perhaps."

  "But there is no one who could come but old Andregg; and he would not,surely?"

  "No, sir; he is too simple and honest to follow us, unless it were tomake sure that we were behaving well to his mule. It must have beenthat. The animal heard or smelt him, and challenged."

  "But you would have seen him, Melchior."

  "I might, sir, but perhaps not. There are plenty of places where a manmight hide who did not wish to be seen."

  "I say, young man," said Dale, "have you a great love for themysterious?"

  "I do not understand you, herr."

  "I mean, are you disposed to fancy things, and imagine troubles wherethere are none?"

  "No, herr; I think I am rather dull," said the guide modestly. "Why doyou ask?"

  "Because that mule made a noise, and you instantly imagined that we werebeing followed and watched."

  "Oh, that! Yes, herr. Our people are curious. Years ago we used to goon quietly tending our cows and goats in the valleys, and driving themup to the huts on the mountains when the snow melted. There were thegreat stocks and horns and spitzes towering up, covered with eternalsnow, and we gazed at them with awe. Then you Englishmen came, andwanted to go up and up where the foot of man never before stepped; andeven our most daring chamois hunters watched you all with wonder."

  "Yes, I suppose so," said Dale, smiling, as he looked in the guide'sfrank face.

  "You wanted guides to the mountains, and we showed you the way, whileyou taught us that we could climb too, and could be as cool and daring.We did not know it before, and we had to get over our suspicions. Forwe said, `these strangers must want to find something in the mountains--something that will pay them for the risk they run in climbing up to theplaces where the demons of the storm dwell, and who wait to hurl downstones and dart lightning at the daring people who would venture up intotheir homes.'"

  "And very dangerous those bad spirits are--eh, Melchior!" said Dale,smiling.

  "Terribly, herr," said the guide. "And you laugh. I don't wonder. Butthere are plenty of our simple, uneducated people in the villages whobelieve all that still. I heard it all as a child, and it took a greatdeal of quiet thinking, as I grew up, before I could shake off all thosefollies, and see that there was nothing to fear high up, but the ice andwind and snow, with the dangers of the climbing. Why, fifty years ago,if a man climbed and fell, the people thought he had been thrown down byevil spirits. Many think so now in the out-of-the-way valleys."

  "Then you are not superstitious, Melchior?"

  "I hope not, herr," said the guide reverently; "but there are plenty ofmy people who are, and suspicious as well. I am only an ignorant man,but I believe in wisdom; and I have lived to see that you Englishmenfind pleasure in reading the books of the great God, written with Hisfinger on the mountains and in the valleys; to know how you collect thelowliest flowers, and can show us the wonders of their shape and howthey grow. Then I know, too, how you find wonders in the great rocks,and can show me how they are made of different stone, which is alwaysbeing ground down to come into the valleys to make them rich. I knowall this, herr; and so I do not wonder and doubt when you ask me to showyou some of the wildest places in the mountains, where you may findcrystals and see glaciers and caves scarcely any of us have ventured tosearch. But if I told some of our people that you spend your money andyour time in seeking and examining all this, they would only laugh andcall me a fool. They would say, `we know better. He has blinded you.He is seeking for gold and diamonds.' And I could not make them believeit is all in the pursuit of--what do you call that!"

  "Science?"

  "Yes, science; that is the word. And in their ignorance they willfollow and watch us, if we do not take care to avoid them."

  "You think, then, that some one has been following us?"

  "Undoubtedly, sir; and if it is so, we shall have trouble."

  "Pooh! They will, you mean. But I'm not going to worry myself aboutthat. There--let's get on."

  Melchior gave a quick glance backward, and Saxe followed his example,his eyes catching directly a glimpse as he thought, of a human face highup, and peering down at them from among some stones which had fallenupon a ledge.

  But the glimpse was only instantaneous, and as he looked he felt that hecould not be sure, and that it might be one of the blocks of lichenedstones that he had taken for a face.

  They went on slowly and more slowly, for the path grew so difficult thatit was easy to imagine that no one had ever been along there before, andSaxe said so.

  "Oh yes," said Melchior; "I have often been along here. It has been mybusiness these many years to go everywhere and find strange wild placesin the mountains. The men, too, who hunt the chamois and the bear--"

  "Eh? what?" cried Saxe, plucking up his ears. "Bears! There are nobears here."

  "Oh yes," said the guide, smiling. "Not many; but there are bears inthe mountains. I have seen them several times, and the ibex too, moreto the south, on the Italian slope."

  "Shall we see them?"

  "You may, herr. Perhaps we shall come across a chamois or two to-day,far up yonder in the distance."

  "Let's get on, then," said Saxe eagerly. "But hallo! how are we to getthe mule up that pile of rocks?"

  "That!" said the guide quietly; "he will climb that better than weshall."

  He was right, for the sure-footed creature breasted the obstacle of ahundred feet of piled-up blocks very coolly, picking his way patiently,and with a certainty that was surprising.

  "Why, the mule is as active as a goat!" cried Dale.

  "Well, not quite, herr," said Melchior. "But, as I said, you will findthat he will go anywhere that we do, except upon the ice. There heloses his footing at once, and the labour is too great to cut steps foran animal like that."

  The great pile of loose blocks was surmounted, and at the top Saxe stoodand saw that it was evidently the remains of a slip from the mountain upto their right, which had fallen perhaps hundreds of years before, andblocked up the narrow gorge, forming a long, deep, winding lake in themountain solitude.

  "Fish? Oh yes--plenty," said the guide, "and easily caught; but theyare very small. There is not food enough for them to grow big andheavy, as they do in the large lakes."

  "Well," said Dale, after a few minutes' study of their surroundings,"this is wild and grand indeed. How far does the lake run up there? Ofcourse it w
inds round more at the other end!"

  "Yes, herr, for miles; and gets narrower, till it is like a river."

  "Grand indeed; but it is like a vast stone wall all round, and as far aswe can see. Must we go back again?"

  "Yes," said Saxe promptly; "there's no means of getting along anyfarther."

  The guide smiled, went a little to the left, and plunged at once into along crack between two masses of rock, so narrow that as the mulefollowed without hesitation, the sides of the basket almost touched therock.

  "We can't say our guide is of no use, Saxe," cried Dale, laughing."Come along. Well, do you like this rough climbing, or would you ratherget back to the paths of the beaten track."

  "I love it," cried Saxe excitedly. "It's all so new and strange. Whydidn't we come here before?"

  "You should say, why do not the tourists come into these wild placesinstead of going year after year in the same ruts, where they can havebig hotels and people to wait upon them? Look, there's a view!" hecontinued, pointing along a narrow gorge between the mountains at adistant peak which stood up like the top of a sugar-loaf, only morewhite.

  "I was looking at that view," said Saxe, pointing downward at the hindquarters of the mule, which was the only part visible, the descent wasso steep, to where they came upon a sheltered grove of pines, whosesombre green stood out in bright contrast to the dull grey rocks.

  Then onward slowly for hours--at times in the valley, where their feetcrushed the beautiful tufts of ferns; then the hoofs of the mule wereclattering over rounded masses of stone, ground and polished, over whichthe patient beast slipped and slid, but never went down. Now and thenthere was a glimpse of a peak here or of another turning or rift there;but for the most part they were completely shut in down between walls ofrock, which echoed their voices, bursting forth into quite an answeringchorus when Melchior gave forth a loud, melodious jodel.

  "But doesn't any one live here?" said Saxe at last.

  "No, herr!"

  "No farmers or cottage people? Are there no villages?"

  "No, herr. How could man live up here in these solitudes? It is brightand beautiful now, with moss and dwarf firs and ferns; but food wouldnot grow here. Then there is no grass for the cattle; and in the winterit is all deep in snow, and the winds tear down these valleys, so thatit is only in sheltered places that the pines can stand. Am I leadingthe herrs right? Is this the kind of scenery they wish to see?"

  "Capital!" cried Saxe.

  "Yes," said Dale quietly, as his eyes wandered up the wall-like sides ofthe gorge they were in; "but there ought to be rifts and caverns up inthese narrow valleys where I could find what I seek."

  "After awhile, herr, after awhile. When we get to the end of this thalwe shall come upon a larger lake. We shall go along one shore of thatto where it empties itself. There is much water in it, for threeglaciers run down toward it. At the other end, beyond the schlucht, weshall be in the greater valley, between the mountains I pointed to thismorning; and there you will find steeper places than this, wilder andstranger, where we can camp for to-night, and to-morrow you can choose."

  "Very good: I leave it to you; but if we pass anything you think wouldbe interesting, stop."

  They had zigzagged about, and climbed up and up as well as descended, sothat Saxe had quite lost count of the direction.

  "Which way are we going now?" he said at last.

  "Nearly due south."

  "Then that's toward Italy?"

  "Yes. As the crow flies we can't be many miles from the border."

  "How rum!" said Saxe to himself. Then, aloud, "Over more mountains, Isuppose?"

  "Over those and many others beyond them," replied Dale; and then, asthey followed each other in single file, Melchior leading and the muleclose at his heels like a dog, weariness and the heat of the narrowsun-bathed gorge put an end to conversation, till Saxe noticed that thewaters foaming along far down in the bottom were running in the samedirection as they were going, whereas earlier in the day they met them.

  "We are in another valley, going toward a different lake," said Dale, inanswer to a remark; "and look: that must be it. No, no--that way to theleft."

  Saxe looked, and saw a gleam of silver between two nearly perpendicularwalls; and half an hour afterwards they were traversing a narrow ledgerunning some few feet above the dark blue waters of a lake shut inapparently on all sides by similar walls of rock, which it would havebeen impossible to scale.

  "The herr will be careful along here," said Melchior, pausing for aminute at a slightly wider part of the shelf to let the mule pass him."Shall we have the rope!"

  "What do you say, Saxe?" said Dale. "If it is no narrower than this, Ithink we can keep our heads."

  "Oh, I can manage," said Saxe. "Besides, if one fell, it is only intothe water. Is it deep, Melchior?"

  "Hundreds of feet, I think," said the guide; "and it would be bad tofall in. I could soon throw you the rope, but the waters are icilycold, and might make you too helpless to swim. Still, it is better togrow accustomed to walking places like this without the rope."

  "Oh yes," said Saxe, coolly enough; "I don't feel frightened."

  "I hope you would speak out frankly if you were nervous," said Dale: "itmight save an accident. False shame would be folly here."

  "Oh, I'll speak," said Saxe, as his eyes wandered over the blue waterthat lay like a mirror reflecting the mountains round. "What a place itlooks for fish! There are plenty here, eh, Melchior?"

  "I have seen small ones leap out--that is all."

  "But what's the matter with the mule? He can't get any farther."

  "Oh yes; there is a good path to where the river runs out. He does notlike to go on by himself. I must get by him again, and lead."

  It was easier said than done, for the path was so narrow that Melchiorhad to press the mule close to the perpendicular rock, and hold on bythe pack-saddle and then by the animal's neck, to get by. Once he didslip, his foot gliding over the edge; but by throwing himself forward hesaved himself, clung to the path for a few minutes as he hung over it,his chest and arms resting thereon till he could get one knee up.

  The rest was easy, and he rose once more to his feet.

  "Hah!" ejaculated Saxe, "I thought you were gone, and we had no rope tothrow to you."

  "It was rather awkward, herr," said the guide coolly. "It is bad, too,to get wet when one is hot with walking."