The Crystal Hunters Part 7

"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 the hole, which was a fairly wide opening, a quant.i.ty of half-frozen snow having given way as the guide's weight rested upon it, and dropped into the black-looking rift, which was lightly bridged over on either side by the snow.

"Lean over if you like, and hang on by the rope," said Melchior, "if you want to look down."

Saxe could not say he did not want to look down, for there was a strange fascination about the place which seemed to draw him. But he resisted, and after a quick glance at the thick snow which arched over the creva.s.se, he drew back; and Melchior led on again, striking the shaft of his ice-axe handle down through the crust before him at every step, and divining, by long practice and the colour of the snow, the direction of the creva.s.se so well, that he only once diverged from the edge sufficiently 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 creva.s.se," he said; and once more they went on upward.

"These cracks make the glacier very dangerous," observed Dale, after a few minutes.

"Not with a rope and care," said Melchior, as he trudged on, shouting his words and not turning his head. "But what will you? See how much easier it is. It would take us hours longer to keep to the rocks.

There is a creva.s.se here: walk lightly--just in my steps."

They followed him carefully, without realising when they were pa.s.sing over the opening, the difference in the appearance of the snow being only plain to the guide; and then onward again till the place was opposite to them where they were to leave the ice river and climb to the rocks.

"One moment," said Dale: "let's take one look round before we leave this part. 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, tightening the rope with a jerk which threw Dale forward upon his face, and drew him a little way on toward the creva.s.se, whose slight covering of snow had given way.

But Melchior threw himself back, and stopped farther progress, as Saxe's voice 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 draw him out."

"Draw him out? No," said the guide quietly. "Now plant your feet firmly, and hold him till I come to your side."

Dale obeyed at once, and shouting to Saxe that help was coming, he stood fast, 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 swinging slowly to and fro, clinging with both hands to the rope, and trying vainly to get a rest for his feet on the smooth wall of ice, over which his toes glided whenever he could catch it; but this was not often, for the ice receded, and in consequence he hung so clear, that the line turned with him, and he was at times with his back to the side from which the rope was strained, gazing at the dimly-seen opposite wall, some six or seven feet away. Above was the over-arching snow, which looked fragile in the extreme.

Far below him as he fell he heard the snow and ice he had broken away go hissing 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, and a cold chill, that was not caused by the icy coldness of the place, ran through him, as he wondered whether the rope, which now looked thin and worn, would hold. Then he thought that it might possibly cut against the sharp edge, and after a sharp glance upward, to see nothing but the blue sky, he could not keep from looking down into the black depths and listening to the faint musical gurgle of running water.

He shuddered as he slowly turned, and then strained his ears to try and make out what his companion and the guide were doing. But he could hear nothing for some minutes. Then there was a vibration of the rope, and a slight jerking sensation, and to his horror he found that he was being lowered down.

Saxe was as brave as most boys of his years, but this was too much for him. It struck him at first that he was being lowered; but the next moment it seemed to be so much without reason that he jumped to the conclusion that the rope was slowly unravelling and coming to pieces.

An absurd notion, but in the supreme moments of great danger people sometimes think wild things.

He was just in the agony of this imagination, when the small patch of light twenty feet above him was darkened, and he saw the head and shoulders of Melchior, as the man, trusting to the strain upon the rope maintained by Dale, leaned forward.

"Can you help yourself at all?" he said quietly.

"No, no!" cried Saxe hoa.r.s.ely.

"Be cool, my lad," said Melchior. "I shall drive the head of my axe into the ice, and leave the handle so that you can grasp it when you are drawn up."

Saxe made no reply, but he heard a dull sound, and directly after the rope began to move, and he knew by the jerks that it was being hauled in hand-over-hand by the guide.

A minute later, and the lad's head was level with the snow, and he saw the handle of the ice-axe, which he grasped. But it was almost needless, for Melchior caught him by the portion of the rope which was round his chest, and by a quick exercise of his great strength raised him right out of the creva.s.se, to stand trembling there, as Dale now ran up and grasped his hand.

"Saxe, my boy! What an escape!"

"Oh no," said the guide quickly. "It was nothing. The rope is good and strong, and all we had to do was to draw him out. It would have been dangerous for one man--he would have died--but we are three, and we help each 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 the knots of the rope which secured it about Saxe's chest, and strode on again, so that they were obliged to follow.

A few minutes later they had reached the rocky side of the glacier valley, and a stiff ascent was before them. Here they found more than ever the value of their guide, for his climbing powers seemed almost marvellous, while almost by instinct he selected the easiest route.

But the easiest was very hard, and every now and then he threw himself back against the rock in difficult places, planted his feet firmly wide apart, and steadily hauled upon the rope, making the ascent of the others much more facile than it would have been.

This was repeated again and again till they had reached the top of the ridge, which had seemed the summit from below on the ice; but here a fresh slope met their eyes, and Melchior made straight for a rift which ran up into the mountain, and, being full of snow, looked at a distance like a waterfall.

"We will go up this couloir," he said; "it will be the best, and it will give the young herr his first lesson in climbing snow."

"But we have been climbing snow," said Saxe, whose trepidation had now pa.s.sed 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 a glissade down here again. The rocks are harder to climb, and a slip there would be bad; besides, the stones fall here sometimes rather thickly."

"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, he began to ascend, kicking his feet into the soft snow as he went on, and sending it flying and rus.h.i.+ng down, sparkling in the suns.h.i.+ne, while the others followed his zigzag track with care. There were times when the foothold 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 was attacked. But the ascent was long, and the couloir curved round as they climbed higher, displaying a fresh length of ascent invisible from below.

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, above and beyond which was steeply scarped mountain, rising higher and higher toward a distant snowy peak.