The Crystal Hunters Part 38

At that moment there was a tremendous crash on their left; and, as they turned sharply, it was to see from far below them what appeared to be a cloud of smoke rising and wreathing round, full of tiny specks of silver, and over which an iris glimmered for a few moments, and faded away with the ice dust caused by the toppling over of a huge serac, which had crushed half a dozen others in its fall.

"Come along. Let's arrange about our camp; and then we'll take hammers and a chisel, and begin to examine the side of this glacier at once."

They turned back. Saxe quitting the glorious view of the crystal silver land, as he mentally dubbed it, very unwillingly.

To his surprise, as they descended they found Gros on his back, in a gully full of sand and stones, snorting, flapping his ears and throwing up his legs, as he fell over first on one side, then on the other, in the full enjoyment of a good roll; while as they advanced it was to find Melchior in the sheltered nook setting up the tent, after rolling some huge pieces of rock to the four corners ready to secure the ropes; for there was no spot in that stony ravine where a peg of iron, let alone one of wood, could be driven in.

"Hah! a capital spot, Melchior."

"Yes, herr, well sheltered from three winds, and there is plenty of good water; but we shall have to be sparing with the wood. To-morrow I'll take Gros, and go down to the nearest pine forest and bring up a load."

"Then you mean to stay here?"

"For a few days, herr. You have peaks all round which you can climb.

There is the glacier, and there are bare mountain precipices and crevices where you may find that of which you are in search."

"Yes," said Dale, as he looked back out of the narrow opening of the gash in the mountain which the guide had chosen for their shelter; "I think this place will do."

"Then the herr is satisfied?"

"Well, yes, for the present. Now, then, leave what you are doing, and we'll descend to the glacier at once."

"Yes, herr. One moment. I'll hang up the lanthorn and the new English rope here. The gla.s.s may be kicked against and broken."

He suspended the English-made stout gla.s.s lanthorn to the little ridge-pole; and then, resuming his jacket, he threw the coil of rope over his shoulder, took his ice-axe, Dale and Saxe taking theirs, all new and bright, almost as they had left the manufacturer's, and started at once for the shelf from which the grand view of the snow-clad mountains had met their gaze. After proceeding along this a short distance, Melchior stopped, climbed out upon a projecting point, and examined the side of the precipice.

"We can get down here, herr," he said; and, setting the example, he descended nimbly from ledge to ledge, pausing at any difficult place to lend a hand or point out foothold, till they were half-way down, when the ledges and crevices by which they had descended suddenly ceased, and they stood upon a shelf from which there seemed to be no further progression, till, as if guided by the formation, Melchior crept to the very end, peered round an angle of the rock, and then came back.

"No," he said--"not that way: the other end."

He pa.s.sed his two companions, and, going to the farther part, climbed up a few feet, and then pa.s.sed out of their sight.

"This way, gentlemen!" he shouted; and upon joining him they found that he had hit upon quite an easy descent to the ice.

This proved to be very different to the glacier they had first examined.

It was far more precipitous in its descent, with the consequence that it was greatly broken up into blocks, needles and overhanging seracs.

These were so eaten away beneath that it seemed as if a breath would send them thundering down.

"Not very safe--eh, Melchior?" said Dale.

"No, herr; we must not venture far from the edge."

This vast glacier had also shrunk, leaving from ten to twenty feet of smoothly polished rock at the side--that is, at the foot of the precipitous gorge down which it ran--and thus forming a comparatively easy path for the travellers, who climbed upwards over the rounded ma.s.ses, stopping from time to time where the ice curved over, leaving s.p.a.ces between it and its rocky bed, down which Saxe gazed into a deep blue dimness, and listened to the murmuring roar of many waters coursing along beneath.

Suddenly Dale uttered an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, and, taking a hammer from his belt, began to climb up the rocky side of the valley.

Melchior saw the place for which he was making, and uttered a grunt indicative of satisfaction.

The spot beneath which Dale stopped was only a dark-looking crack; but as Saxe went nearer he could see that it was edged with dark-coloured crystals set closely together, and resembling in size and shape the teeth of a small saw.

Dale began to probe the crack directly with the handle of his ice-axe, to find that the crevice gradually widened; and on applying his mouth there and shouting, he could feel that it was a great opening.

"There ought to be big crystals in there, Melchior," cried Dale excitedly.

"Yes, herr; but without you brought powder and blasting tools you could not get at them, and if you did blast you would break them up."

Dale said nothing, but laying down his ice-axe he took hammer and chisel and began to chip energetically at the hard rock, while the others looked on till he ceased hammering, with a gesture full of impatience.

"You are right, Melchior," he said; "I shall never widen it like this."

"Why try, herr? I can show you holes already large enough for us to get in."

"You know for certain of such places?"

"I cannot tell you exactly where they are now, but I have seen them in the mountains!"

"In the mountains?"

"Well, then, right in these mountains, I feel sure. Let us go on and try. If we do not find a better place we know where this is, and can try it another time."

"Go on, then," said Dale, rather reluctantly; and they continued climbing, with the rock towering up on one side, the ice curving over on the other, and rising in the middle of the glacier to a series of crags and waves and smooth patches full of cracks, in which lay blocks of granite or limestone that had been tumbled down from the sides or far up toward the head of the valley ages before.

They had not progressed far before the guide pointed out another crack in the rock fringed with gem-like crystals, and then another and another, but all out of reach without chipping steps in the stone--of course a most arduous task.

"All signs that we are in the right formation, Saxe," said Dale more hopefully, after they had toiled on up the side of the glacier for about a couple of hours; and they stood watching Melchior, who had mounted on to the ice to see if he could find better travelling for them.

"Yes," he shouted--"better here;" and the others climbed up and joined him, to find that the surface was much smoother, and that the broken-up ma.s.ses of ice were far less frequent.

"Plenty of creva.s.ses, herr," said Melchior; "but they are all to be seen. There is no snow to bridge them over."

He stood looking down one of the blue cracks zigzagged across the glacier, and Saxe could not help a shudder as he gazed down into its blue depths and listened to the roar of water which came up from below.

But it was not more than a yard in width, and in turn they leaped across and continued their way.

Then they had to pa.s.s another, half the width, and others that were mere fissures, which Dale said were slowly splitting; but soon after stepping across the last of these, further progress over the ice was barred by a great chasm four or five yards from edge to edge, along which they had to skirt till its end could be turned and their journey continued.

"Can we take to the rocks again?" said Dale, looking anxiously toward the almost perpendicular sides of the valley up which they slowly made their way.

"Not yet, herr: I have been watching, and we are still only pa.s.sing mere crevices in the rock. Hah! now we are coming to the enow, and shall have to take care."

He pointed with his ice-axe to where, a hundred yards or so farther on, the surface of the ice suddenly changed; but they did not pa.s.s at once on to the snow, for as they neared it they found that they were parted from it by another creva.s.se of about four feet wide.

"We need not go round this, I suppose," said Dale, as he stood peering down into its depths--Saxe following his example, and listening to a peculiar hissing rush of water far below.

"No, herr, the leap is so short. Shall I go first?"

"Oh no," said Dale, stepping back and then jumping lightly across, to alight on the snow; "beautiful landing, Saxe. Take a bit of a run."