Part 30 (1/2)
But Saxe's nature was too impatient for this, and before he had been seated there many minutes he began to strain his neck in looking up to right and left.
Melchior leaned over to him and shouted in his ear, he having divined the boy's thoughts from his actions.
”No, herr, no--not here. There is one place where, with a hammer and plenty of iron spikes to drive in the cracks of the rock, we might perhaps get to the top; but it would be impossible without. We should want ten times as much rope too.”
”Is the water going down now?” shouted back Saxe, after a pause.
Melchior looked down and shook his head.
”Will it come with a sudden rush, like a river?”
”Oh no. It may rise very quickly, but not all at once. Of course it all comes from the lake, and the waters of the lake swell from hundreds of streams and falls. No, herr, it will not come down with a rush.”
”But it is rising very fast,” said Dale, who had caught part of their conversation. ”Are we on the highest part that we can reach!”
”Yes, herr; and I am sorry I have brought you in. I try to be a perfect guide, but there is no such thing. I ought to have been prepared for another rise after the storm we had. Forgive me.”
”You think, then, that the water will come up above where we are sitting.”
The guide nodded, and pointed to a dimly-seen mark upon the wall, quite level with their heads.
”Then we must find some other ledge upon which we can stand,” cried Dale, rising to his feet.
Melchior shook his head. ”There is none,” he said.
”You have not looked.”
”Herr, I searched the wall with my eyes as we went and returned. A guide studies the places he pa.s.ses, and learns them by heart, so that they may be useful at some time, should he want them. Look above you: the wall hangs over all the way. Nothing but a fly could stand anywhere along here.”
It was undeniable, as Dale could see; and he leaned back against the rock and folded his arms, gazing down sternly at the rising water, till the guide spoke again, as he finished his pipe, knocked out the ashes, and replaced it in his breast.
”It would be wise to take off the rope,” he said quietly.
”Why?” cried Saxe excitedly.
”Because, if we are swept down with the stream, it would be in our way-- perhaps catch in some rock below, or tangle round our legs and arms.”
”You feel, then,” cried Dale, ”that there is no hope of the waters going down, and that we shall soon have a chance to get through?”
Saxe, whose brain had been full of horrors suggested by the guide's last words--words which had called up visions of unfortunate people vainly struggling to reach the surface beyond the reach of the strangling water, but held down by that terrible rope--now sat listening eagerly for Melchior's next utterance, as the man began deliberately unfastening the rope.
”I can say nothing for certain, herr,” he replied. ”We are in the hands of the great G.o.d, whose children we are, and we must be patient and wait. I hope we shall get out safely,--perhaps I think we shall--but it is our duty to be ready. The young herr swims, I know, and so do you, herr; but if we have to make for the lower end of the schlucht, try and remember this: Don't struggle to get to the surface, for it is waste of strength. You cannot swim properly in this water, for all torrents are full of bubbles of air, and these do not bear one up like still water.
What you must do is, to get a fresh breath now and then, and let the stream carry you along.”
Saxe looked horrified, and the guide interpreted his thoughts.
”You will easily do it. The stream is swifter now than when I went through, and I had all the distance to journey. You will only have half. It looks very horrible, but after the first plunge you do not mind. Now, herr, let me untie you.”
He turned to Saxe, who submitted to the operation without a word, and then watched the guide as he carefully laid up the rope in rings upon his left arm. Meanwhile, Dale had unfastened his end, and stood waiting to hand it to the guide, who secured it round the coil before hanging it across his breast.