Part 22 (1/2)
Baptist, throwing off his pack, and fastening a rope round his waist, which his comrades held, advanced to the extreme edge of the ice, and with his long-handled axe, gently patted the snow on the opposite side.
The surface yielded, and it seemed as if even that small weight would break the lump _off_, but the operation consolidated the ma.s.s in a few minutes, by reason of what the Professor termed ”regelation.” He then stepped tenderly on it, crossed over, and drew the rope after him.
Antoine followed next, and in a few minutes the whole party was safe on the other side.
”Dr Lawrence,” said Slingsby, in a low grave tone, as they walked along after this, ”if we ever see Chamouni again I shall be surprised.”
”Indeed?” returned Lawrence, with a short laugh, ”I don't take quite so gloomy a view of our case. Don't you think that the free and easy, quiet look of our guide and porters indicates that such work looks more dangerous than it really is?”
”I don't know that,” said the artist, shaking his head, ”when men get thoroughly accustomed to danger they become foolhardy, and don't realise it. I think it sheer madness to cross such places.”
Lewis, who overheard the conversation, could scarce refrain from a burst of laughter.
”Upon my word, Slingsby,” said he, ”such observations come strangely from the lips of a man, who only a day or two ago was caught sketching on a snow-wreath over the edge of a creva.s.se.”
”Ah, but I didn't know it,” retorted the other, ”and even if I _had_ known it, the ledge of snow was immensely stronger than that on which we have just stood.”
At this point the conversation was interrupted by the guide stopping and saying that it was now necessary to tie the party together.
They had reached those higher parts of the glacier where snow frequently falls and covers, to some extent the narrower creva.s.ses, thus, by concealing them, rendering them extremely dangerous traps. It therefore became necessary to attach the various members of the party together by means of a rope, which, pa.s.sing round their waists, with a few feet between each, enabled them to rescue any one who should chance to break through.
Thus, in a string, they advanced, and had scarcely proceeded a hundred yards when a surprised ”hallo!” from Captain Wopper arrested them. He had sunk up to the knees in snow. A ”hallo!” of alarm instantly succeeded. He was waist deep. A stentorian yell followed:
”Ho! hallo! hi!--avast! Hold on there abaft! My legs are waublin' in nothin'!”
His great weight had indeed nearly plunged him into a hidden creva.s.se, over which those who preceded him had pa.s.sed in safety. If the Captain had stood alone that creva.s.se would certainly have been his grave, but his friends held him tight, and in a few seconds he was dragged out of danger.
”Well, well,” he said, wiping some large drops of perspiration from his brow, as he stood on the other side of the chasm, ”land-lubbers talk about seafarin' men havin' nothin' but a plank between them an' death, but to my thinkin' the rottenest plank that ever was launched is absolute safety compared to `a snow-wreath.'”
”Ah! Captain,” said the Professor, laughing, ”you think so just now because you're not used to it. In a few weeks you'll hold a different opinion.”
”May be so,” replied the Captain quietly, ”but it don't feel so--heave ahead, my hearties!”
Thus encouraged the party proceeded with caution, the guide sounding the snow at each step with his long axe-handle as he moved in advance.
Slowly they mounted higher and higher, occasionally meeting with, but always overcoming, difficulties, until towards evening they reached the little log cabin on the Grands Mulets, not sorry to find in it a sufficient though humble resting-place for the night.
Here they proceeded to make themselves comfortable. Some firewood had been carried up by the porters, with which a fire was kindled, wet garments were hung up to dry, and hot coffee was prepared, while the sun sank in a gorgeous world of amber and crimson fire.
One by one the stars came out and gradually twinkled into brilliancy, until at last the glorious host of heaven shone in the deepening sky with an intensity of l.u.s.tre that cannot be described, contrasting strangely with the pallid ghostly aspect of the surrounding snow-fields.
These were the only trace of earth that now remained to greet the eyes of our travellers when they looked forth from the door of the little hut. Besides being calm and beautiful, the night was intensely cold.
There is this peculiarity, on Alpine mountain tops, that when the sun's last rays desert them the temperature falls abruptly, there being little or nothing of earth or rock to conserve the heat poured out during the day. The mountaineers, therefore, soon after night closed in, found it necessary to shut the door of their cabin, where they roused up the fire, quaffed their steaming coffee, and smoked their pipes, in joyful antic.i.p.ation of the coming day.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
THE GRAND ASCENT CONTINUED AND COMPLETED.
Need we say that the younger of our adventurers--for such they may truly be styled--felt a tendency to ”spin yarns,” as Captain Wopper expressed it, till a late hour that night, as they sat round the fire at the Grands Mulets?
During this enjoyable period, Lawrence and Lewis made themselves better acquainted with Baptist Le Croix, the chamois-hunter, whose quiet, gentle, and un.o.btrusive manner was very attractive to them. Many an anecdote did he relate of adventures among the Alpine peaks and pa.s.ses while pursuing the chamois, or guiding travellers on their way, and it is probable that he might have roamed in spirit among his beloved haunts--eagerly followed in spirit by the young men--if he had not been called to order by the guide, who, remembering the hard work that lay before them on the morrow, suggested repose. The profound silence that soon reigned in the hut was broken only by an occasional long-drawn sigh. Even Captain Wopper was quiet, having been so powerfully influenced by fresh mountain air and exercise as to have forgotten or foregone his ordinary and inveterate snore.