Part 49 (1/2)

Well, Heaven be thanked, my life was spared. Ah! herr, I am very proud of you two, for I seem to have taught you a little. Very few of our men would have worked more bravely, or done so well.”

”Oh, nonsense! We acted as any one else would under the circ.u.mstances,”

said Dale hastily. ”Tell us about your accident.”

”My fall, herr? There is very little to tell.”

”Little!” echoed Saxe. ”Oh, go on: tell us!”

”Very well, herr,” said Melchior simply; but he remained silent.

”We thought you were killed,” said Dale, to bring the guide's thoughts back.

”Yes, herr; you would. It was a bad fall; very deep, but not like going down from a mountain. I am not broken anywhere; hardly scratched, except my hands and arms in climbing.”

”But you jumped across the creva.s.se, Melk!” cried Saxe, ”and then a great piece broke out.”

”Yes, herr: so suddenly that I had not time to use my axe, and before I could utter a cry I was falling fast down into the dark depths. I believe I did cry out for help, but the noise of ice and snow falling and breaking on a ledge some way down drowned my voice; and as I turned over in the air, I felt that I had made my last climb, and that the end had come, as I had known it come to better guides.”

”There are no better guides,” said Saxe warmly.

”No!” echoed Dale, and they saw the man's face flush a little through his swarthy skin, and his eyes brighten.

”Oh yes, herrs,” he said; ”but we all try to do our best. What was I saying? I remember: that I was falling down and down, and set my teeth and held my axe with both hands to try and strike if I should reach a slope, so as to stop myself; but there was nothing but the black walls of ice on either side and the roar of waters below. I thought of this as I prepared myself for being broken on the cruel rocks beneath: a great deal to think, herrs, in so short a time, but thoughts come quickly when one is falling. Then I was plunged suddenly into deep, roaring water, and felt myself swept round and then onward as if I had been once more in the schlucht; for I had fallen into one of the great water holes in the river below the gletscher, and then was carried along.”

”How horrible!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Saxe. ”Was it very dark?”

”So black that a man might do without eyes, herr,” said Melchior, smiling sadly.

”You could not swim in water like that!”

”No, herr; and it was so cold that it deadened a man's strength. But I knew I must fight for my life, for I said to myself I had my two English herrs above there on the gletscher, and how could they find their way back from the wilderness of ice? Then I thought of how the little river must run, and I could tell--for I knew it must be very much like the places where I have looked up from the end of gletschers (glaciers you call them)--that there would be deep holes worn in the rock where great stones are always whirling round and grinding the hollows deeper. These would be hard to pa.s.s; but I hoped by clinging to the side to get by them without being drowned. They were not what I feared.”

”Then what did you fear!” cried Saxe excitedly; for the guide had paused.

”The narrow pieces, where the water touched the roof, herr. I knew it was far down to the foot of the glacier, and that there must be many long hollows where the water rushed through as in a great pipe; and if they were too long, I felt that I could never get my breath again, but that I should be thrown out at the bottom dead.”

Dale drew a long, deep breath, and asked himself whether he was justified in exposing a man to such risks for the sake of making his own discoveries.

”Well, herrs, I knew that if I stopped I should get benumbed and unable to struggle on, so I began feeling my way along the narrow sh.o.r.e of the little river, now touching stone, now ice, till the sh.o.r.e seemed to end.

As I felt about I found the ice arch lower, and that I must begin to wade.”

”But why didn't you try and wade back to the bottom of the creva.s.se where you fell?” cried Saxe.

”I did, herr; but it was impossible to face the water. It rushed down so fiercely that, as it grew deeper and from wading knee deep I was going along with the water at my waist, I had to cling sometimes to the ice above my head to keep from being swept away.”

Saxe drew a long breath.

”I went on, herr, cheered by the knowledge that every step I took was one nearer to liberty; and now, though the water was all melted ice, I did not feel so cold, till suddenly my feet slipped away from under me, and I felt as if something had given me a heavy push in the back. Then I was under the water, and found that I was gliding round and round. I don't know how many times, for it was like being in a dream, till I was once more where the water swept me down under the ice arch.

”There, I can tell you little more, except that it was all wild confusion, that the roar of the water seemed to crash against my ears till I was once more in a shallow place; and as I struggled to get my breath, I came to what seemed to be a bar, panting heavily till I could turn a little, and I found that the bar to which I clung was the handle of my ice-axe lying across two ma.s.ses of stone, between which the waters roared.