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The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 26. An Expedition |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. AN EXPEDITION There was no doubt about Melchior's willingness to make a fresh start that day; but none was made, Dale being of the opinion that a quiet rest in the neighbourhood of the camp would be of advantage to all concerned. "Rest our bodies and our nerves too, Saxe," he said. "I am pretty strong in mind and muscle, but yesterday's business shook me in both. I can see it all constantly; and as for my arms, the strain upon them was terrific." "The herr is stopping about the tent to-day," said Melchior to Saxe the first time he could get him alone, "because he thinks I am too weak to go forward, and because he does not trust me as he did before. It is cruel of him, and he is mistaken. I had an accident, of course; but so do the best guides upon the mountains have accidents." "You are quite wrong," replied Saxe, and he repeated all that Dale had said; but the guide did not seem to be satisfied, for he shook his head solemnly, and went about smoking his big pipe, looking despondent in the extreme; while the others spent the morning chipping the stones in search of minerals that might prove interesting, and of the various Alpine plants that luxuriated in the sheltered corners and ravines facing the south. They had been collecting for some little time, when Saxe suddenly exclaimed-- "Well, I am disappointed!" "What, at not going on some wild expedition to-day?" "No: with these stones and flowers." "Why?" said Dale. "Because there's nothing fresh. I've seen plants like that in Cornwall, and limestone like that in Yorkshire." "Not exactly like it, boy; say similar." "Well, granite and limestone, then." "So you would, my lad, all over the world--Asia, Africa or America." "But I expected something so different; and I thought we were going to get magnificent great crystals, and I haven't seen any yet." "Did you expect to see them tumbling about anywhere on the mountain side, sir?" "I thought they would be plentiful." "I did not. I fully expected that we should have a good deal of difficulty in finding them. If they were easily found, they would be common and of no value. Wait a bit, and I dare say we shall discover a crystal cavern yet." "Well, then, the flowers and moss: I expected to find all kinds of fresh things." "Did you?" "Yes, of course--all foreign. Why, look at those! I've seen lots of them at home in gardens." "Gentians? Oh yes." "And that patch of old monkshood," Saxe continued, pointing to a slope dotted with the dark blue flowers of the aconite. "Why, you can see that in nearly every cottage garden at home. Here's another plant, too--I don't know its name." "Centaurea." "You can see that everywhere; and these bluebell-harebell-campanula things, and the dandelion blossoms, and the whortleberry and hogweed and wild parsley stuff: you see them all at home." "Anything else?" "Oh yes: the fir trees down below, and the ash and birch and oak and willow, and all the rest of it. I thought all the trees and flowers would be foreign; and there's nothing strange about them anywhere, only that they grow close to the ice." "Humph!" ejaculated Dale, as he pressed an orange hawkweed between two pieces of paper; "has it never occurred to your wise young head that these things are common at home because they have been brought from places like this?" "Eh?" "Have you not heard about Alpine plants?" "Oh yes. Aunt Ellen has lots in her garden, I know, because they are so like my name--Saxe something." "Saxifrages. There are any number of them about here, from some so tiny you can hardly see them to others with great bell flowers and broad leaves. I'm afraid if you went to the tropics Saxe, you would find fault with the plants there, because you had seen so many of them at home in England. Now, let's sit down and rest here, and look at the mountains! I never tire of watching their snow peaks, ridges and hollows, with their dazzling snow." "Yes, it's very beautiful; but I want to climb up some more of them." "In spite of the risks?" "Oh, we must be more careful, and pick fine days." Dale smiled. "You must have a chat with Melchior about that. Do you know that is almost impossible to pick what you call a fine day?" "No," said Saxe. "I should not have thought it was. Why can't you choose one?" "Because the higher you are up the more risk there is of change. Now, look here: what sort of a day would you call this?" "Surely just the day for ascending a peak." "Yes, I knew you would say that; but look up yonder," and he pointed toward the summit of the highest mountain near. "Yes, I can see. What a lovely slope of snow, with a few clouds floating by!" "To us, Saxe; but if we were up there, we should be in a mist, with the weather intensely cold and a wind blowing so hard that it would be unsafe to climb." "What, up there?--now?" cried Saxe wonderingly. "Yes, up there now. I have often known men ascend mountains on what seemed to be glorious days, and there was only a fine filmy veil to be seen floating round the higher parts--just enough to hide them perhaps for an hour together; but when they came down to the little hotel in the valley, they had a long tale to tell us of having been frostbitten while clinging to the snow slopes and ice-covered rocks, not daring to venture up or down on account of the tremendous, tempestuous wind blowing." "I say, look here!" cried Saxe, pointing to another peak from which lovely, silvery streamers of cloud spread out: "you don't mean to say that there's bad weather up there now?" "Indeed, but I do; and if you asked Melchior he would--" "Hi! Melk!" cried Saxe, as the man came slowly up after them, "what sort of weather is it up there now?" "Terrible, herr," replied the man, shading his eyes. "The snow must be falling heavily, and a wind raging fierce enough to tear any man from his hold." "Well!" ejaculated Saxe, "I am puzzled. Why, the weather looks glorious--like summer!" "But you forget that if you only go high enough up it is eternal winter. The tops of those mountains are in the midst of never-failing snow, which is gradually compressed into ice and--" "Would the herr like to go to the foot of the glacier and examine the ice grotto?" "We did do that in the other valley." "But this is a larger cave, herr; and besides, it is the entrance to the one where I journeyed down." "Can't you settle yourself for a quiet day, Melchior?" said Dale, smiling. "No, herr; I do not seem to be earning my money. It will be a very easy walk, and we can take the lanthorn and another candle; besides, it is quite fresh. I do not think any one has ever been in it but me." "What do you say, Saxe?" "That I should like to go," cried the lad eagerly; for half a day of comparative inaction had been sufficient to weary him, surrounded as he was by such a region of enchantment, where, turn which way he would, there was some temptation to explore. "I am in the minority," said Dale, smiling; "but I mean to have my own way. No: I shall keep to my previous arrangements. To-day we will rest. To-morrow, if the weather is good, I'm going up to the bare face of that mountain on the other side of the glacier." "The Bergstock," said Melchior. "Yes, it is one of the places I mean to take you to, herr; for the gletscher winds round behind it, and I hope you will find what you want there." "I'm not half so eager to find crystals now, Melk," said Saxe that evening, as he sat beside the guide, glad that the day of inaction was at an end. "Why so?" asked Melchior. "Because we don't find any, I suppose." "But when we do the young herr will be as eager as ever." "Oh!" "Is the young herr in pain?" "No: only when I move. My arms are so stiff. I say, don't you feel a bit sore from your work yesterday?" "Oh yes, herr," said the guide, smiling; "but the best way to ease pains like those is not to think about them." "I dare say it is," grumbled Saxe; "but it seems to me that it would be easier to bear the pain. I couldn't forget a thing that's always reminding you that you are sore. But there, I am glad it's to-night. I shall go to roost in good time, so as to get a fine long sleep." Saxe kept his word, and he slept soundly, only waking once when the mule uttered one of its peculiar squeals. But no one was sufficiently alarmed to get up, and the incident was forgotten next morning, when one of many days of an uneventful nature commenced, during which the party made excursions in different directions: into the ice grotto; across the glacier to the Bergstock; up to first one and then another snowfield, and among magnificent views in all directions, and under endless atmospheric changes such as gave constant variety to the surroundings. And every night Saxe confided to Melchior that he was tired of it all, and every morning was refreshed and ready for fresh action. The perils of the crevasse adventure were almost forgotten; but it seemed to the boy that Dale shrank from going into any fresh danger, and this troubled him. "I suppose Mr Dale thinks I behaved badly, and was too young," he said. "But only let me have a chance, and I'll show him I am not such a coward as he thinks." Then came the evening when Melchior announced that the food supply must be renewed by a long journey to Andregg's chalet, for bread and coffee and butter could not be easily obtained, like wood. "Will the herr come back with me, or shall I go alone?" "Go alone, Melchior, and be as quick back as you can." The next morning when they woke the guide and the mule were gone, probably having started at the first faint dawn. "Are you going to wait about the tent till he comes back, sir?" said Saxe, as they sat over the breakfast they had prepared. "No: we will have two or three little excursions of our own, just up to and along the edge of the snow-line; but to-day I should like to visit the glacier again, and see those two crevasses coolly." An hour after they were well on their way, knowledge having made the task comparatively easy. But it was rather a risky journey, before they had arrived at the spot which was pretty deeply impressed upon their minds: for every now and then some mass of worn ice fell crashing down, and raised the echoes of the narrow valley, while a cool wind seemed to have been set free by the fall, and went sighing down the gorge. They were prepared to find the lower crevasse, from which they had recovered Melchior, much less terrible by daylight. To their surprise, it was far more vast and grand, and as they advanced cautiously to the edge and peered down into the blue depths, they both drew breath and gazed at each other with a peculiarly inquiring look. There were the notches Saxe had cut, but partly melted down by the action of the sun; there, too, were the holes chipped out and used to anchor the ice-axe; and then, as if fascinated by the place, Saxe advanced again to the edge. "Take care!" said Dale warningly. "Yes. I only want to see if I can make out the slope up which he climbed." The boy lay down upon his chest and peered over, but gave quite a start directly, as he felt himself touched. "I was only hooking you by the belt, my lad," said Dale, who had pushed the head of his axe through the boy's belt. "You can do the same for me another time." Saxe flushed a little, and looked down again, feeling that Dale was treating him as if he were a child. "Well," said his companion, "can you see the slope?" "No: nothing but the blue darkness--nothing." He drew himself away. "It's a horrible place," he said. "What are you going to do?" "Only send a big lump of ice down." "I suppose that comes natural to all of us," said Dale, smiling, and helping the lad turn over a huge block broken from one of the shattered seracs. "I never knew any one yet who did not want to send something down every hole he saw, even if it was a well." The block they turned over was roughly cylindrical, and turned over pretty readily upon their using their axe handles as levers, and at last they had it close to the brink of the awful chasm, and paused for a few moments. "No fear of its hurting any one--eh, Saxe?" said Dale; but he spoke seriously, for the terrible nature of the place impressed him, and before going farther the two again peered down into the awful gulf. The effect was the same on each--a peculiar shrinking, as the thought came--"Suppose I were to fall?" "Well, Saxe," said Dale, "shall we push the piece down?" Saxe nodded, and placed the handle of his axe under the block. Dale did the same. They raised their hands together, and the great block went over and dropped out of sight, while they stood listening and waiting for the heavy bellowing crash, which seemed as if it would never come, and then far exceeded in violence anything they had imagined. "It isn't stupid is it, to feel a bit frightened of such a place?" said Saxe, with his face all in wrinkles. "I should say the person must be very dense and stupid who is not frightened of such an awful place. Here, let's get on: it seems rather waste of time to spend it going to these crevasses again; but it is interesting all the same." They started upward now, and went nearly exactly over the same ground as before, till the upper crevasse was reached; and after going through the same performance of sending down a block of ice, Dale suggested that as it would be unwise to go farther up the glacier, here covered with snow, without the help of the guide, they should make for the side of the gorge, and at the first opening climb up and make their way over the lower slopes of the mountain, and so back to camp. _ |
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