Part 35 (1/2)

”Only the day before yesterday,” said the proprietor, ”they started for the mountains. Always they make expeditions.”

Chayne drew no satisfaction from that statement. Garratt Skinner and his friend would make many expeditions from which both men would return in safety. Garratt Skinner was no blunderer. And when at the last he returned alone with some flawless story of an accident in which his friend had lost his life, no one would believe but that here was another mishap, and another name to be added to the Alpine death-roll.

”To what mountain have they gone?” Chayne asked.

”To no mountain to-day. They cross the Col du Geant, monsieur, to Courmayeur. But after that I do not know.”

”Oh, into Italy,” said Chayne, in relief. So far there was no danger. The Col du Geant, that great pa.s.s between France and Italy across the range of Mont Blanc, was almost a highway. There would be too many parties abroad amongst its ice seracs on these days of summer for any deed which needed solitude and secrecy.

”When do you expect them back?”

”In five days, monsieur; not before.” And at this reply Chayne's fears were all renewed. For clearly the expedition was not to end with the pa.s.sage of the Col du Geant. There was to be a sequel, perhaps some hazardous ascent, some expedition at all events which Garratt Skinner had not thought fit to name.

”They took guides, I suppose,” he said.

”One guide, monsieur, and a porter. Monsieur need not fear. For Monsieur Skinner is of an excellence prodigious.”

”My father!” exclaimed Sylvia, in surprise. ”I never knew.”

”What guide?” asked Chayne.

”Pierre Delouvain”; and so once again Chayne's fears were allayed. He turned to Sylvia.

”A good name, sweetheart. I never climbed with him, but I know him by report. A prudent man, as prudent as he is skilful. He would run no risks.”

The name gave him indeed greater comfort than even his words expressed.

Delouvain's mere presence would prevent the commission of any crime. His great strength would not be needed to hinder it. For he would be there, to bear witness afterward. Chayne was freed from the dread which during the last two days had oppressed him. Perhaps after all Sylvia was right and the plot was definitely abandoned. Chayne knew very well that Garratt Skinner's pa.s.sion for the Alps was a deep and real one. Perhaps it was that alone which had brought him back to Chamonix. Perhaps one day in the train, traveling northward from Italy, he had looked from the window and seen the slopes of Monte Rosa white in the sun--white with the look of white velvet--and all the last twenty years had fallen from him like a cloak, and he had been drawn back as with chains to the high playground of his youth. Chayne could very well understand that possibility, and eased of his fears he walked away with Sylvia back to the open square in the middle of the town. Darkness had come, and both stopped with one accord and looked upward to the ma.s.sive barrier of hills. The rock peaks stood sharply up against the clear, dark sky, the snow-slopes glimmered faintly like a pale mist, and incredibly far, incredibly high, underneath a bright and dancing star, shone a dim and rounded whiteness, the snow-cap of Mont Blanc.

”A year ago,” said Sylvia, drawing a breath and bethinking her of the black shadows which during those twelve months had lain across her path.

”Yes, a year ago we were here,” said Chayne. The little square was thronged, the hotels and houses were bright with lights, and from here and from there music floated out upon the air, the light and lilting melodies of the day. ”Sylvia, you see the cafe down the street there by the bridge?”

”Yes.”

”A year ago, on just such a night as this, I sat with my guide, Michel Revailloud. I was going to cross the Col Dolent on the morrow. He had made his last ascent. We were not very cheerful. And he gave me as a parting present the one sc.r.a.p of philosophy his life had taught him. He said: 'Take care that when the time comes for you to get old that you have some one to share your memories. Take care that when you go home in the end, there shall be some one waiting in the room and the lamp lit against your coming.'”

Sylvia pressed against her side the hand which he had slipped through her arm.

”But he did more than give advice,” Chayne continued, ”for as he went away to his home in the little village of Les Praz-Conduits, just across the fields, he pa.s.sed Couttet's Hotel and saw you under the lamp talking to a guide he knew. You were making your arrangements to ascend the Charmoz. But he dissuaded you.”

”Yes.”

”He convinced you that your first mountain should be the Aiguille d'Argentiere. He gave you no doubt many reasons, but not the real one which he had in his thoughts.”

Sylvia looked at Chayne in surprise.

”He sent you to the Aiguille d'Argentiere, because he knew that so you and I would meet at the Pavilion de Lognan.”

”But he had never spoken to me until that night,” exclaimed Sylvia.

”Yet he had noticed you. When I went up to fetch down my friend Lattery, you were standing on the hotel step. You said to me, 'I am sorry.' Michel heard you speak, and that evening talked of you. He had the thought that you and I were matched.”