CHAPTER ELEVEN.
A GLISSADE IS NOT ALL BLISS.
It took a long time to find that bubbling spring; but they discovered itat last, coming down from hundreds of feet above their heads, over vividgreen moss and under fern fronds, to form into tiny pools in thecrevices of the rocks; and from one of these they drank with aviditylong cooling draughts of the sparkling water dipped out in the flaskcup, and then they turned to go.
As they walked back, it was to find that Melchior had just returned withthe pannier, and had been spreading part of his clothes in the sun todry.
"We have been after water," said Dale.
"Ah! you found it all right, then?" said the guide eagerly.
"Yes; but it is a good way off, and I only had my flask with me."
"Good way off!" said Melchior. "Why, it is close here."
"But we could not drink that," cried Saxe.
"Why? It is beautiful water. I will show you."
He took a tin from the basket as he spoke.
"Well, you can drink it if you like," said Saxe. "I wouldn't haveminded it out of the lake; but this thick stuff--why, it's horrid."
"From the lake? No, not good," said the guide. "Bad for the throat.See here!"
He took a dozen steps toward the schlucht, and passed round a huge massof rock, behind which a pure fount of water gushed out from a rift, atwhose foot Gros was drinking where the water ran down to join the river.
"Some people say that they like to travel without a guide," said Dalequietly.
"Yes, herr; there are plenty who come here, and think they know in a dayall that it has taken me more than twenty years to learn."
He led the way back to the basket, and busily spread their homely dinneron a smooth block of stone, Saxe vowing that he had never eaten suchbread and cheese before.
When the meal was ended, and the basket once more placed on the mule'sback, Dale looked inquiringly at the guide.
"Over yonder, herr," he said, pointing at the wall of rock away to theirleft.
"But we can't get up there with the mule," cried Saxe: "we're notflies."
"Wait and see, herr," replied Melchior. "We shall mount yonder, andthen go right over the col between those two peaks. There is the valleyon the other side that we are seeking, and there we must rest for thenight."
"Then the sooner we start the better," said Dale, "for the day isgetting on."
"Yes, herr; and the mists come down into the col where the snow lies.Are you ready?"
The answer was in the affirmative, and the guide started straight forthe wall of rock, which still looked quite impassable as they drew near,till Melchior turned sharply round into a cleft, which looked as if ahuge piece had been cut down from the mountain, and left guile separateand still standing.
Up this cleft they mounted steadily, till, to Saxe's surprise, he foundhimself high above the mighty wall which shut in the valley, and onlynow, as it were, at the foot of the mountains, which rose up fold beyondfold, apparently endless, and for the most part snow-capped, with snowlying deeply in the hollows, and filling up the narrow col or depressionbetween the peaks where they were to pass.
Saxe looked up at the snow, and then at Dale, who also seemed to havehis doubts.
"Can we pass that before dark?" he said.
"Yes, herr. Trust me: I know."
"But how far have we to go on the other side? If it is very far, had wenot better camp here for the night?"
"When we reach the summit of the col, herr, our task is done. There isa deep hollow, well sheltered, and where the snow never falls."
"I leave myself in your hands, Melchior," said Dale. "Go on."
The climb over the rugged ground was very laborious, but there was abrisk freshness in the air which kept fatigue at a distance, and theytoiled on up and up, with the sloping rays of the sun making the snowabove them indescribably beautiful.
"Yes," said Saxe, "but I'm getting too tired and out of breath to enjoyit now. I'll do that to-morrow."
"The young herr shall come and see the sun rise on the snow passes,"said Melchior. "I will call him."
"No, don't, please," said Saxe. "I shall want two days' sleep afterthis."
The guide laughed, patted Gros, who trudged on as fresh apparently asever, till they reached the rough culm of a ridge, to look down at onceon the snow slope to which they had to descend for a couple of hundredfeet, the ridge they were on acting as a buttress to keep the snow fromgliding down into the valley.
"Is that the last?" asked Saxe.
"Yes, herr. One hour's quiet, steady work. Half an hour after, thefire will be burning and the kettle boiling for our tea."
"What! up there in that snow!"
"No, herr: we shall have descended into the warm shelter of which Ispoke."
They soon reached the foot of the snow, which rose up in one broadsmooth sheet, pure and white beyond anything existing lower down, andas, now thoroughly tired, Saxe gazed up at the beautiful curvedescending from the mountains on either side, it seemed to be atremendous way up.
"The snow is pretty hard," said Melchior. "Use my steps."
He clapped the mule on the haunch, and the sturdy beast set off at onceup the laborious ascent, with its hoofs sinking in deeply, asinstinctively it sloped off to the right instead of breasting the ascentat once.
"But what about the rope, Melchior?" said Dale sharply.
"There is no need for a rope here, herr. This snow lies on the solidrock, and every crevice and hollow is full, with the snow harder andmore strong the deeper we go."
"Of course: I had forgotten. This is not a glacier. Come, Saxe!Tired?"
"Wait till I get to the top," was the reply; and they climbed on, withthe snow gradually changing colour as it was bathed in the eveningsunshine, till they seemed to be tramping up and up over grains of gold,which went rushing back as Gros plunged his way upward, turning fromtime to time, and retracing his steps at an angle, thus forming a zigzagas regular as if it had been marked out for him at starting.
"Seems to grow as one climbs," grumbled Saxe at last, as he grew tootired to admire the glorious prospect of gilded peaks which kept onopening out at every turn.
"But it does not," replied Dale. "Come: do your best! It's splendidpractice for your muscles and wind. You are out of breath now, but aweek or two hence you will think nothing of a slope like this; andto-morrow I am thinking of ascending that peak, if you like to come."
"Which?" cried Saxe.
"That to the right, where the rock is clear on one side and it is allsnow on the other."
"Yes, I see."
"It is not one of the high peaks, but the rocks look attractive, and itwill be practice before I try something big. But you'll be too muchdone up with to-day's work."
Saxe frowned, and they went on in silence for a time, till, at one ofthe turns made by the mule, Dale paused.
"Like a rest?" he said.
"No," replied Saxe; "we may as well get to the top first."
Dale smiled to himself.
"He has plenty of spirit," he muttered; and he watched Saxe toiling on,with his feet sinking in the snow at every step, and how he never onceglanced up at the top of the col for which they were making; but he gavea start and his face lit up as Melchior suddenly uttered his peculiarjodel.
"The top of the col," he cried; and, as the others joined him where hestood, with his arm over the mule's neck, he said, "Would the herrs likeme to tell them the names of the different peaks?"
"Yes, after tea," said Saxe, laughing. "But, I say, I thought this wasa sharp ridge, like the roof of a church, and that we should go downdirectly off the snow."
"Patience, herr," said Melchior. "Come along, then. It is colder uphere. See how low the sun is, and feel how hard the snow becomes."
Saxe glanced at the great ruddy glow in the west, and saw how thedifferent peaks had flashed up into brilliant light; he noted, too, thatif he trod lightly, his feet hardly went through the crust on the sno
w.
"Why, it's beginning to freeze!" he cried suddenly.
"Yes, herr; on this side it is freezing hard. On the other side it willbe soft yet. That is the south."
They went on for three or four hundred yards, over what seemed to be alevel plain of snow, but which they knew from what they had seen below,hung in a curve from the dazzling snow peaks on either hand, and to begracefully rounded south and north.
So gradual was the descent that nothing was visible of the valley forwhich they were making; and Saxe was just about to attack the guideabout his declaration respecting the short time after reaching the topof the col before they would be at tea, when Melchior suddenly stopped,and as Saxe joined him where he stood, the snow ran down suddenly,steeply, and with a beautiful curve into a tiny valley, whose floor wasgreen, with a silver rivulet winding through it, and several clumps ofdwarfed pines turning it into quite a park.
"There is our resting-place, herr," he said, "with a perfect bit of snowfor a glissade."
"What, slide down the snow!" cried Saxe. "To be sure! Shall I be ableto stop myself! I don't want to go rolling down into that water like aball."
"Come behind me," said Dale quietly; "I'll show you how. Stand up as Ido, and hold your alpenstock behind you like this. Some people say itis wrong, but I always get on so."
He pressed his alpenstock into the snow behind him, holding it under hisleft arm with both hands; and leaning back upon it, he waited till Saxehad imitated him exactly.
"If you find you are going down too fast, lean back more, so as to driveyour pike down into the snow. Try and keep your balance. If you goover, hold on to your alpenstock and try to stop yourself the best wayyou can. Ready?"
"Yes."
"Then off! Steady, slowly, as you can. There's no hurry."
"Well, I don't want to hurry," muttered Saxe, as he began to glide downthe beautiful sloping curve, with the crisp large-grained snow hissingand flying down before him. It was glorious. He felt as if he wereflying; then as if he were having a splendid skate without the slightestexertion. The bottom of the valley began to fly up to meet him, and hehad some slight consciousness of Dale being close before or behind him,he could not tell which, for his mind was concentrated upon his descent,which grew more and more rapid and delightful. Every sense of wearinesswas gone, and he was just thinking of lammergeyers in their flight, whenhe heard his companions shouting to him, just as he lost his balance andcame down on his side. Then, he lost his alpenstock and directly afterhis temper, as he found he was rolling down head first till he gavehimself a tremendous wrench, and contrived to get his feet foremost,with his heels down in the snow, and by degrees rose into a sittingposition, finishing his descent more deliberately, for fortunately theslope grew less and less, till he was brought up by the stones at thefoot, and able to look up.
"Hurt?" cried Dale, who came down to him directly after.
"Haven't had time to see yet," said Saxe gruffly. "Here are my trousersgot right up my legs."
"No skin off your knuckles?"
"I think not," said Saxe. "Are you all right? But what did it?"
"You."
"No. There must have been something sticking up out of the enow toupset me: a piece of rock, I think."
"You'll think differently after a few more tries," said Dale, laughing;and returned to see how Melchior was getting down with the mule.
They were coming far more gently, the mule having tucked its hind legsclose beneath it, and slid steadily down, while by means of his ice-axeMelchior regulated his pace to that of the quadruped, till they, too,were at the bottom.
"Saxe thinks there was a piece of rock sticking out of the snow ready toupset him," cried Dale.
"Hush! Don't make him laugh at a fellow," said the boy hurriedly.
Melchior smiled.
"It was his first lesson," he said quietly. "Now, there is a clump ofrocks between those two patches of pines, and water and wood inabundance. Will you have the fire there?"
Half an hour after they were all seated round a crackling fire, wellsheltered on all sides, and with the rock projecting far over theirheads in case of rain. The kettle was singing, the coffee ready, therest of the provisions spread, and the mule cropping the grass close by,never once trying to leave the vicinity of his human companions.
An hour after the fire was out the stars shone brilliantly, and thelittle party slept beneath their rugs on a couch of pine boughs assoundly as in the most luxurious couch that had fallen to their lot.
The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps Page 11
