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

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

  A MOUNTAIN MIST.

  "Hah!" ejaculated Dale, as he watched the strange phenomenon; "peoplewill talk superstitious nonsense and believe in ghost stories, portentsand other old women's tales. But don't you take any notice of them,Saxe. They will not do for Englishmen. Why, you have no faith in suchthings, Melchior?"

  "Not much, herr," said the guide, smiling: "I have seen the `spectre ofthe Brocken,' as people call it, twenty times at least. But I do fearmists."

  "Yes; those are real dangers. And you think we shall have them here!"

  "Yes, herr. I should like us to descend at once. We can do nothing ina fog."

  "Come along, Saxe: we'll go down."

  "Can't--can't we stop a little longer?" said the lad hesitatingly.

  "No. You will have plenty more chances of seeing views like this, orfiner. What is it, Melchior?"

  "We were forgetting all about the rocks, herr. There are some curiousbits here."

  He picked up two or three fragments and handled them, but Dale threwthem aside after a glance.

  "Only very fine, hard granite, with scarcely a grain of felspar," hesaid. "What about this?"

  As he spoke he stooped down over a narrow crevice running up a portionof the summit.

  "Yes. There may be something here, but it would require blasting toolsand power to open it out. Look here, Saxe!"

  He pointed to the narrow split, in which it was just possible to get theend of his ice-axe handle; and as Saxe bent down he saw that the sideswere lined with tiny quartz crystals, which grew bigger lower down.

  "I want to find a rift in the mountains leading into a cavern where wemay find crystals worth saving. Yes, Melchior, I will not waste time.These are of no value. Lead on."

  The guide had been giving an anxious look round, for there was a faintsighing of the wind, and clouds were floating around them now and then,shutting off the sun.

  "I should like to get well down, herr, before the weather changes. Theyoung herr would find it terribly cold."

  "Hadn't we better wait till it gets clearer," said Saxe, "and go downthen?"

  "If we did we might not be able to get down at all," said Dale quietly.

  "Why?"

  "We might be frozen to death. Come, Saxe, you must not be greedy.You've had a splendid ascent on a lovely day, and you will have others.Always pay respect to your guide's opinion about the weather. Comealong."

  Saxe could hang back no longer, though the sensation of dread hesuffered from was terrible. Try how he would, there was the horror ofthat first bit of the descent before him; and, shuddering and feelingcold, he followed to the edge of the rock where he had found the guidesitting, and a fresh access of horror came over him as Dale said coolly:

  "Now, Melchior, it is your turn to go first and have the use of therope. I'll come last."

  "We can all use it, herr," said the guide. "It will be quite longenough if I pass it round this block and let both ends hang down. I candraw it after us when we are down."

  He threw the rope over a great block of granite, and proceeded to drawit along till the ends were equal, when he lightly twisted the rope andthrew it over the precipice.

  "Then I'll go first," said Dale; and, seizing the twisted rope, helowered himself over the edge, hung in sight for a few moments, andthen, as soon as his hands were clear of the edge, allowed himself toslide down, while Saxe's palms felt cold and wet.

  He watched the rope intently and strained his ears, and then started,for Melchior gently laid his hand upon his shoulder.

  "What is it?" cried Saxe excitedly. "Has he fallen?"

  "No, herr; and nobody is going to fall. You are fancying troubles. Iknow. I have not led strangers up the mountains for twenty yearswithout studying their faces as well as the face of Nature. I can readyours. You are scarcely yourself, and feeling fear where there is noneed. Come now, take a long breath. Make an effort, and be calm. I'lldraw up the rope and fasten one end round you, and lower you down."

  "No," cried Saxe excitedly; "I can get down without. Is he safe yet?"

  "Safe? He is down: look at the rope shaking. Shall I draw it up?"

  For answer Saxe stooped down, and rose again to get his ice-axe wellbehind him in his belt. Then he stooped again, seized the lightlytwisted rope, lay down upon his chest, thrust his legs over the edge ofthe precipice, worked himself back till he was clear, and began to glideslowly down.

  He shuddered, for the rope began to twist; and directly after, insteadof gazing at the rough granite rock, he was facing outward, and gazingwildly down at the step-like series of precipices below.

  "Not too fast," came from Dale; and this brought him back to hisposition, and, twisting his legs about the double rope, he slipped downmore slowly, wondering the while why the rope had ceased to turn andswing, till he saw that it was being held tightly now.

  "Well done!" cried Dale: "you are getting quite at home at it. Right!"he shouted to Melchior, whose two legs appeared directly after, then hisbody, and he slid down rapidly, as if it were one of the most simplethings in the world--as it really was, save that, instead of being closeto the level, it was twelve thousand feet above.

  As Melchior joined them, he rapidly untwisted the rope, held the twoends apart, and, as he drew with his left, he sent a wave along from hisright, and threw the end up, with the result that the rope came awayeasily, and was rapidly coiled up.

  The mists were collecting on the summit as they reached the snow bed,but they followed their old track easily enough; and when at last, inwhat seemed to be a surprisingly short space of time, they came to thehead of the arete, the white, spectral looking fog was creeping down inlong-drawn wreaths, toward which Melchior kept turning his eyes.

  "Look as if they will catch us soon," said Dale quietly.

  "Pray Heaven they may not till we are clear of this ridge, herr!" saidthe guide piously. "Now, quick--the rope! You will go first."

  The rope was rapidly attached, and, as Dale started to descend, itseemed to Saxe that he was disappearing over the edge of a precipice;and as this was repeated again and again while they reversed the way bywhich they had ascended, the guide sitting fast and holding on till theywere down, the place seemed far more terrible, and the snow slopes oneither side almost perpendicular.

  They made good way, however, Melchior keeping on inciting them to freshexertion.

  "Go on, gentlemen--go on!" he said. "I have you safe. The rope isgood. Go on, herrs--go on!"

  But the descent over those rugged knife-edged ridges was so perilous,that Dale went slowly and cautiously; and when he reached eachstopping-place he held on till Saxe had passed down to him. Once theboy seemed to totter as he was passing from one of the rocks to theother, over a patch of snow between them; but the firm strain upon therope gave him support, and he reached the rock and began to lowerhimself.

  In spite of their hastening, that which Melchior had apprehendedhappened: a cloud of mist suddenly started in advance of the rest, whichhad formed upward, and now completely veiled the summit. Thismist-cloud rolled rapidly down when the party were about two-thirds ofthe way down the ridge, and just as Saxe was being lowered down.

  An ejaculation from the guide made the lad look up; and he saw thestern, earnest face for a moment, then the fog rolled over it, and theguide's voice sounded strange as he shouted:

  "Go on, young herr; and directly you reach Mr Dale sit fast. Don'tmove."

  Five minutes later Melchior was with them, and they crouched together,partly on rock, partly in snow.

  "We must not move, herr," said Melchior. "It is unfortunate, but I wasrather afraid. If it had held off for another quarter of an hour, Ishould not have cared."

  "Will it last long?" asked Saxe.

  "Who can say, herr! Perhaps for days. In the mountains, when theweather is bad, we can only wait and hope."

  "Had we not better try to get down off this edge?"

  "As a last resource, if th
e mist does not lift, herr. But not yet."

  Dale uttered an impatient ejaculation; but the guide filled and lit hispipe, settling himself down quite in the snow.

  "Wind may come later on," he said, "and then perhaps we can get down.It is a pity, for this is the worst place in the whole descent. Butthere: the mountains are mountains, and anything is better than an icywind, that numbs you so that you cannot stir."

  He was scarcely visible, close as he was; but he had hardly finishedspeaking when Saxe saw his head, at first faintly, then clearly--for thecloud of mist had been still descending, and literally rolled down pastthem, Saxe himself standing out clear, then Dale, and the rocks belowthem one by one as far as the curve permitted them to see.

  It was bright sunshine now once more, and as the rays from the west shotby, it was between two strata of clouds, glorifying that which was belowand lighting up that above.

  "Quick, herr!" said Melchior, in an authoritative tone. "We have thisbad piece to finish, if we can, before another cloud rolls down."

  The descent was continued, seeming to Saxe almost interminable. Thenthey were hurrying along over the snow, after passing the morning'sresting-place, and on and on till the shelf was reached with theprecipice running down so steeply, just as mist came rolling down fromabove and also up from the depths below, meeting just where the partystood roping themselves together.

  But, to the surprise of Saxe, the guide took no heed--he merely went onfastening the rope till he had done.

  "You will not venture along that shelf while it is so thick, Melchior?"said Dale.

  "Oh yes, herr. We must not wait here."

  "But the danger!"

  "There is scarcely any, herr," replied the guide. "The great danger isof going astray. We cannot go wrong here. We have only to go along theshelf to the end."

  "But it is like going along the edge of a precipice in the dark."

  "It is like darkness, and more confusing, herr; but we have the wall onour left to steady us, and where we are is terribly exposed. Trust me,sir."

  "Forward!" said Dale quietly. "Keep the rope fairly tight."

  Melchior stepped at once on to the ledge, and the others followed, allthree going cautiously and very slowly through the opaque mist, whichlooked so solid at Saxe's feet that more than once he was ready to makea false step, while he wondered in himself that he did not feel morealarm, but attributed the cause rightly to the fact that he could notsee the danger yawning below. To make the passage along this ledge themore perilous and strange, each was invisible to the other, and theirvoices in the awful solitude sounded muffled and strange.

  As Saxe stepped cautiously along, feeling his way by the wall andbeating the edge of the precipice with the handle of his ice-axe, hefelt over again the sensations he had had in passing along there thatmorning. But the dread was not so keen--only lest there should be asudden strain on the rope caused by one of them slipping; and he judgedrightly that, had one of them gone over the precipice here, nothingcould have saved the others, for there was no good hold that they couldseize, to bear up against the sudden jerk.

  "Over!" shouted Melchior at last. "Steady, herr--steady! Don't hurry!That's it: give me your hand."

  "I can't see you."

  "No? Come along, then, another yard or two: you are not quite off theledge. That's it. Safe!"

  "And thank goodness!" said Dale, with a sigh of relief, a few minuteslater. "That was worse than ever. Saxe, my lad, you are having amonth's mountaineering crowded into one day."

  "Yes, herr," said Melchior; "he is having a very great lesson, and he'llfeel a different person when he lies down to sleep."

  "He will if we have anywhere to sleep to-night. It seems to me as if wemust sit under a block of stone and wait until this mist is gone."

  "Oh no, herr," said the guide; "we will keep to the rope, and you twowill save me if I get into a bad place. I seem to know this mountainpretty well now; and, if you recollect, there was nothing very bad. Ithink we'll go on, if you please, and try and reach the camp."

  "You asked me to trust you," said Dale. "I will. Go on."

  "Forward, then; and if I do not hit the snow col I shall find thevalley, and we can journey back."

  For the first time Saxe began to feel how utterly exhausted he hadgrown. Till now the excitement and heat of the journey had monopolisedall his thoughts; but, as they stumbled on down slope after slope strewnwith debris, or over patches of deep snow, his legs dragged heavily, andhe struck himself awkwardly against blocks of granite that he might haveavoided.

  The work was comparatively simple, though. It was downward, and thatmust be right unless Melchior led them to the edge of some terribleprecipice right or left of the track they had taken in the morning.

  But matters began to go easier and easier, for at the end of anotherhour's tramp they suddenly emerged from the mist, coming out below it,and after a few more dozen steps seeing it like a roof high above theirheads.

  Here the guide stopped, mounted a stone, and stood looking about him inthe evening light.

  "I see," he cried: "we are not half an hour out of our way. Off to theright we shall reach the snow, and then our task is done."

  Melchior was right: in less than the time he had named they reached theplace where they had left the great snow slope, up which they had had tozigzag; and after descending it diagonally for some distance, the guideproposed a glissade.

  "The young herr shall come down behind me this time," he said; and aftera few preliminary words of advice they started, and rapidly descendedsafely to the debris at the foot of the snow, from which the walk to thecamp was not long.

  Melchior soon had a good fire burning, with Gros standing nearcontemplating it solemnly, while Dale placed their provisions ready.

  "Now, Saxe, my lad," he said, "I congratulate you on your display ofhonest English pluck to-day. I don't see that any boy of your age couldhave behaved better. Come along: coffee's ready. You must be halfstarved."

  There was a pause.

  "Ready, Melchior?"

  "Yes, herr: the coffee smells heavenly, and I have an appetite forthree."

  "You shall satisfy it, then. To-morrow we'll go back and fetch all ourtraps, and then come over here again; for I do not think we can get abetter part for our search. Come, Saxe, wake up."

  But there was no reply: Saxe was sleeping with all his might after thetremendous exertions of the day.