"Yes; and I would have a good search down there," said Saxe: "we may find a fresh place."

"Well, we shall see, my lad; we shall see."

The journey to the niche was made leisurely enough, with no further excitement than a false alarm or two raised by Saxe, who felt sure that they were being followed; but, as he was only laughed at for his pains, he turned sulky, and went on without looking back. He played with the goat, which took to him in the most affectionate way, snowing its appreciation by butting at him when he did not expect the kindly attention; and he became the best of friends with Gros, who climbed on, uttering low sighs of satisfaction as soon as Saxe had hit upon the idea of scratching here and there with the point of the geological hammer, and whinnying impatiently for a continuance of the titillation as soon as the boy ceased.

Then the niche was reached, looking quite familiar with the traces of their old fireplace; the tent was set up and secured with blocks of granite instead of tethering pegs, and Saxe gave a grunt of pleasure as he saw the preparations for the evening meal.

"How about the goat, Melk?" he said: "will she want tethering?"

"Oh no, herr: she will not leave us and Gros. Those animals are too fond of company to go far. They get tiresome now and then from being too familiar."

The night passed quietly enough. It was cold; and, at the height they had reached, the stars shone out frostily; but the sleep was deliriously refreshing, and Saxe rose the next morning ready for a journey to the Black Ravine. The mule was taken to carry back any specimens that they might decide to bring away, and the goat insisted upon following, having apparently no intention of being left alone, and setting Gros an excellent example in climbing.

In the Black Ravine the two grottoes were well searched, and the lower one found to be fairly extensive; but no specimens were found worthy of notice, and they returned to camp.

The next day was spent in another expedition higher up the glacier valley, which was followed till the snow became so deep as to be laborious to pass over, and, after exploring two similar ravines to the last, they returned once more to camp, where Melchior drew Saxe aside to ask him if he noticed anything.

"Eh? No," said the boy.

"Perhaps I am wrong, then," said the guide. "I thought the tent had been interfered with, as if some one had touched it."

No more was said; but these words set Saxe thinking till it was bedtime, when Melchior startled him by saying quietly—

"Don't laugh at me, herr. I do try to be firm, and to set aside all the old stories of demons, dragons and goblins in the mountains. I wish the herr would have a watch kept again, for I am afraid that this gletscher valley is bewitched."

Saxe looked at him for a moment wonderingly, and then laughed.

"Don't let Mr Dale hear you talk like that," he said. "It will make him cross. He says there is no need to keep watch; and that it is so tiring."

Saxe had forgotten the incident in the conversation which ensued; and after the discussion of the plans for the ensuing day, he went to his sleeping-place to think about the blue-ice grotto at the bottom of the glacier where the milky stream issued, and lie wondering how far up they would be able to explore it, and whether it would be possible to get up as far as the crevasse out of which they had rescued the guide.

"Wouldn't be worth the trouble," he said to himself, in the middle of a yawn. "Plenty of crystals, but the wrong sort—ice crystals—won't keep."

It only seemed to be the next minute that he was sitting up in the darkness listening and realising that he had been asleep. He had been dreaming, he was sure, but had not the least idea what about; and all he knew now was that he was hot and thirsty.

He rose and quietly unfastened the little canvas fold which served as a door, and went out to find the kettle and have a good draught of water; but it was so mawkishly warm, that he turned from it in disgust, and began to ascend higher to where the little fall came, down, with its pure, icily cold stream.

The night was glorious, and as he looked up he felt that he had never seen so many or such large stars before. So grandly was the arch of heaven bespangled, that he stopped to gaze upward for a few minutes, till, the sensation of thirst growing more acute, he went on, with the towering wall of rock to right and left, and the moist odour of the falling water saluting his nostrils, as he went close up to where one tiny thread of water fell bubbling into a rocky basin, edged with moss— the spot where water was obtained for regular use, its crystal purity tempting the thirsty to drink.

Saxe placed a hand on the rock on either side, bent down till his lips touched the surface, and then drank with avidity, every draught being delicious.

"Make any fellow sleep," he said to himself, as he raised his head; and he was in the act of passing his hand across his wet lips, when he became suddenly petrified, and stood there motionless, gazing straight before him at a hideous object, apparently not a yard away. It looked misty and dim in the semi-darkness, but plain enough for the boy to see apparently a huge head resting in a pair of hands, which held the chin and pressed up the long loose cheeks on either side, curving up the monstrous mouth into a ghastly grin. The forehead was low, and the eyebrows were shaggy, while from beneath them glared into his a great pair of glowing eyes, that flashed at times and sparkled in the starlight, which rained down on and through a bush of dark, tangled hair, a portion of which hung below the head on either side, and stood out wildly around.

There was no movement but in the eyes, and these literally held the boy, so that for a time he could do nothing but stare at the horrible-looking object, which seemed to come nearer to him—so near that it almost touched him; then receded, till it was almost invisible, and once more stood quite still.

But it was not moving, and Saxe still had sufficient command over self to know that this effect was produced by the mist from the fall being wafted between them by the soft night wind.

How long he stood bent forward there gazing at that horrible head Saxe did not know, but by degrees he began to shrink back slowly, getting farther and farther away, till he dared to turn and run with all his might to the tent door, and creep in, fully expecting that the monster was about to spring upon him till he was inside, when he fastened the canvas door with trembling fingers, and crept to his bed again, where he lay down quickly, with his breath sobbing and the perspiration standing in great drops upon his face. The sensation was upon him that the terrible being he had seen would begin breaking in through the canvas directly, and he lay there with one arm stretched out ready to wake up Dale for help at the first sound outside the tent.

As he now lay trembling there, he recalled Melchior's words about the valley being bewitched, the falling stones, the disappearance of the crystals; and he was fast growing into a belief that the old legends must be true, and that there really existed a race of horrible little beings beneath the earth, whose duty it was to protect the treasures of the subterranean lands, and that this was one of them on the watch to take the crystals from their hands. But in the midst of the intense silence of the night better sense began to prevail.

"It's all nonsense—all impossible," he muttered. "There are no such things, and it was all fancy. I must have seen a block of stone through the falling water, and I was half asleep and nearly dreaming at the time. Why, if I were to wake Mr Dale and tell him, he would laugh at me. It was all a dream."

But, all the same, he lay shivering there, the aspect of the face having startled him in a way that at times enforced belief; and it was getting rapidly on toward morning when he once more fell asleep, to dream of that hideous head and see the terrible eyes gazing right into his own.



CHAPTER FORTY.

IN THE ICE-CAVE.

The sun was shining brightly on as lovely a morning as had fallen to their lot since they had been in the Alps; and upon Saxe springing up, his first act was to go up to the spring for his morning wash, and also to look at the stone which had so strongly resembled a head.

There was the clear basin from which he had drunk, and there were the places where he had rested his hands; but there was no stone that could by any possibility have looked like a head even in the darkness, and he returned at last to the tent feeling strangely uncomfortable, and in no good condition for his breakfast.

"Come, Saxe," cried Dale, as he sat eating his bread and fried bacon. "Didn't you sleep well? Not unwell, are you?"

"I? No—oh no! Why?"

"Because you are making a very poor meal, and it will be many hours before we eat again."

Saxe went on with his breakfast; but somehow he did not enjoy it, and his thoughts were either occupied with the terrible face which stood out clear before him as he had seen it the previous night, or he was asking himself whether he should not take Melchior into his confidence, and ask him his opinion about what he had seen.

"I shall not want to stop here to-night," he said to himself. "It is too horrible to feel that a hideous creature like that is always close at hand."

"Now, then," cried Dale, breaking in upon his meditations; "pack up, and let's start for the bottom of the glacier. How long will it take us?"

"Nearly two hours, herr."

"We'll have some provisions for lunch, and take the big hammer and chisel: I shall want the rock marked, so that I can examine it when I come next year, or the year after."

The orders were obeyed, the tent closed up, water and fuel placed ready for their return, and Melchior led off with the mule to cut across a corner before descending to the edge of the ice.

Before they had gone a dozen yards there was a loud b-a-ah! from overhead, and the goat came bounding down from rock to rock in the most breakneck fashion; but it ended by leaping into their track, and ran up and butted its head against Saxe.

"How friendly that animal has become!" said Saxe, as they walked on, with the goat munching away and trotting beside them; till Dale said suddenly, "Here—we do not want it with us: send it back."

Saxe drove the goat away, but it took his movements as meaning play, and danced and skipped, and dodged him and then dashed by, and on ahead, the same gambols taking place at every attempt to send the animal back.

"There—let it be," cried Dale at last: "you'll tire yourself out before we fairly start. Why, it follows us like a dog! Perhaps it will get tired soon, and go back."

But the goat seemed to have no such intention, and it would have been a difficult task to tire out the active creature, which was now tickling the mule's ribs with one of its horns, now scrambling up some steep piece of rock, now making tremendous leaps, and trotting on again as calmly as if it were thoroughly one of the party.

In due time the foot of the great glacier was reached, after a difficult scramble down the steep, smoothly polished rocks which shut it in on either side.

Here the mule was unloaded by a shabby amount of pasture, ice-axes and hammers seized, and the trio started over the level bed of the glacier streams, the main rivulet dividing into several tiny veins, which spread over the soft clayey earth brought down by the water. But this soon gave place to rock as they neared the piled-up ice, which looked to Saxe like huge masses of dull white chalk, veined in every direction with blue.

As they advanced the rock became more and more smooth, looking as if the ice had only lately shrunk from its surface, but, on Melchior being referred to, he shook his head.

"Not in my time, herr. The ice is creeping farther down the valley every year."

"Well," said Dale; "we'll try and find out the rate of its progress by scoring the rock."

This was done in several places as they advanced toward the low arch of ice from which the stream poured forth; and Saxe rather shrank from this task, as it seemed to promise a long wade in chilling water.

But as they came close up, it was to find ample room beneath the glacier to pick their way in over the rock, with the stream on their right, where it had worn itself a channel in the course of ages.

Dale became immediately deeply interested in the structure of the ice and the state of the rock beneath the arch, at whose entrance he paused, while the guide under his instruction chipped marks at the edge of the stream by which he could test the rate of progress of the glacier.

This was very interesting from a scientific point of view; but it soon grew tedious to Saxe, who began to penetrate a little farther into the lovely blue grotto, whose roof was a succession of the most delicate azure tints.

"Don't go in too far alone," said Dale, looking up.

"No: I shall not go too far," replied Saxe; "and, besides, I am not alone."

He nodded laughingly toward the goat, which had followed him in without hesitation, sniffing at the running water, and then throwing up its horned head to gaze onward into the blue haze from which came the gurglings and strange whisperings of the water.

"Well, I may as well go on a little bit," thought Saxe; and cautiously advancing, so as not to step down some horrible rock split, he went forward rapt in wonder at the beauty of the scene, as at the end of a few yards the passage curved round so that the opening became invisible, and he was gazing at the glorious rays of light which shot right by him, all tinted with celestial blue.

"It is glorious," he thought; and then he gave quite a start, for the goat beside him suddenly set up a loud bleat and began to advance farther beneath the glacier, its pattering hoofs on the stone sounding loudly above the water.

"Here, you: stop! Come back," cried Saxe: "you'll be tumbling down some hole. Do you hear?"

If the goat did hear, it paid no heed, but went on; and as the way seemed to be safe in the dim blue light, Saxe followed, till from twilight it began to grow purply-black before he had nearly overtaken the goat, which uttered a mournful baa, and stopped short, as a good-sized lump of ice flew by its head, and smashed upon the rock; and as the goat still advanced, another and another came flying.

Saxe retreated horrified and startled, to reach the spot where the others were, breathless and pale.

"Hullo! What's the matter?"

"The ice is falling in. Come out."

"Nonsense!" cried Dale.

"It is; or else lumps are flying out from inside; and the goat and I were nearly hit."

Dale looked at the guide, who shook his head.

"Some ice might fall farther in," he said; "but pieces could not come flying out."

"Of course not," said Dale, returning to his observations. "Go in and see."

It was on Saxe's lips to say, "Never again!" for his thoughts flew back to his last night's experience; but just then the goat bleated, looked inquiringly along the blue winding cavern, with its amethystine roof, and began to advance.

"There you are, Saxe," cried Dale: "go after that goat and turn her back, or she'll lose herself, and there'll be no milk for tea."

Saxe felt obliged to go now; and, calling himself a coward to be afraid to enter that long cellar-like place, he walked boldly in after the goat, turned the corner where the arch of light was left behind, with the two fingers busy chipping and measuring, and went on.

The goat looked very indistinct now, then it disappeared in the purple gloom; and it was only by listening to the pat-pat of its hoofs on the stone that Saxe could satisfy himself that it was going forward, and that there was no dangerous fall awaiting him.

Then the goat bleated again, and crick, crack, crash, came the sound of pieces of ice striking the walls and floor. The goat came bounding back, followed by another piece of ice, which broke close to Saxe's feet, as he turned and took flight once more.

"Hullo!—back! Why, you look scared, boy!"

"There is ice falling or flying out."

Dale laughed; and this put the boy upon his mettle, as he now argued with himself that help was very near.

"I want the lanthorn," he said aloud.

"What for?"

"To go and see what it is."

"That's right. Give him the lanthorn, Melchior. We'll follow him directly."

The guide swung the lanthorn round from where it hung at his belt, detached it, lit it; and, with the confidence afforded by the light, Saxe grasped his ice-axe firmly, and walked right in, preceded once more by the goat.

The mingling of the light with the amethystine gloom had a very beautiful effect, as the former flashed from the surface of the walls and made the ice glitter; but Saxe had no eyes then for natural beauties. He could think of nothing but the flying lumps of ice, and, oddly enough, the remembrance of the horrible head which he had seen in the night now came strongly back.

But he went on, and, if not boldly, at any rate with a fixed determination to see the adventure to the end.

Saxe was able to penetrate farther this time, with the goat pattering on before him; and to show that there was no fancy in the matter, the light flashed from some broken fragments of ice lying close beside the rushing stream. But though he held the lanthorn high above his head, he could see nothing, only the dim arch, the line of shining water, and the pale stony floor.

Just ahead, though, the stream took a sudden bend round to the left, and the dry portion of the stone taking the same direction, Saxe went on, involuntarily raising his axe as if there might be danger round beyond that bend where the ice projected like a buttress.

He was close upon it now, and, holding the light well up with his left hand, he was in the act of turning the corner, when something moved out of the darkness on the other side, and Saxe stood once more petrified with horror as the light fell upon the huge face he had seen in the night, but hideously distorted, and with the glowing bloodshot eyes within six inches of his own.



CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

MELCHIOR WAKES UP.

The boy's lips parted, but no words came; his arm was raised with its weapon, but he could not strike—only stand shivering; until, by a tremendous effort, he flung himself round and dashed back.

"Why, hallo, lad! what is it? Have you seen a ghost?"

Saxe tried to speak, but no words would come for a few moments.

"Yes—no," he panted at last. "Something dreadful—in there."

Dale caught up the ice-axe which he had laid down while he was measuring, and turned to the guide.

"What is it likely to be, Melchior—a bear?"

"I cannot say, herr," said the guide, whose countenance changed a little as he, too, caught up his ice-axe. "But I should think not—in there."

"No—not a bear," panted Saxe. "I saw it—last night. Horrible— horrible."

"Don't rave like a hysterical girl, my lad," cried Dale, grasping Saxe's arm. "Now, then: speak out—like a man. Is it the body of some poor creature dead?"

"No—no," said Saxe, struggling to master himself, and now speaking calmly: "I went to the fall to drink in the middle of the night, and I saw it there. It cast lumps of ice at me, and I saw it close to the lanthorn."

"A wild beast?"

"No," said Saxe, with a shudder.

"Come; you must not be scared like that, my lad. What was it?"

"I don't know; unless it is true that there are gnomes and kobolds, and this is one."

"Well, then, boy—it is not true, and this is not one."

"No—no: of course not," said Saxe, who was now strung up. "It must be a man."

"Of course. What do you say, Melchior?"

"That it must be a man trying to frighten him, herr. We will go and see."

"Yes," said Dale calmly, taking the lanthorn: "we must go and see. We shall be back directly, Saxe."

"I am coming with you," said the boy firmly. "I am ashamed to have been so frightened, but it was very horrible."

Dale gripped his arm firmly.

"Well done, brother mountaineer," he whispered. "Come along."

He strode into the ice-cave, closely followed by Saxe, and Melchior went in after him.

"These English: they are very brave," he muttered. "I must go, too."

Dale went on, holding the lanthorn on high, and his ice-axe so that it could be used as a cudgel in case of attack; and as soon as the first bend was passed there were clear evidences of pieces of ice having been thrown, while a minute later a good-sized piece grazed the lanthorn, and another struck Saxe on the arm.

"Hurt?" said Dale.

"Not much."

"Come on, then, and turn your axe. Don't be afraid to strike with the handle. It is a trick being played upon us."

"Take care, herr—take care!" said Melchior, in an excited whisper, as a couple more pieces were thrown, to shiver against the stones.

"Yes, I'll take care," said Dale angrily, as he pressed on. "Hold your axe handle in front of your face, Saxe."

At that moment there was a rushing sound, and the goat darted by them, startling all for the moment; but Dale went on, and now reached the second angle.

He was in the act of passing round, when the same great hideous face came into view, with the eyes rolling and the great mouth opened, showing crooked blackened teeth. It was so hideous that Dale stopped short, with his blood seeming to curdle; and when he recovered himself and looked again, the face was gone.

"You saw!" whispered Saxe.

"Yes, I saw. What is it?—a gorilla?"

At that moment a hideous, bellowing roar came echoing down the ice grotto, sounding so low and inhuman that it needed all Saxe's determination to stand fast.

"What are you going to do?" whispered the boy.

"Act like a man, sir," said Dale firmly. "Here, Melchior, can you explain this—a hideous face, like that of some deformity—a dwarf?"

"Ah!" exclaimed Melchior: "you saw that? I thought so, from that cry."

"Well, what is it? Do you know?"

"Yes, I know!" cried the guide angrily: "who could be so weak? Come on, herr. Give Herr Saxe the light, and be ready to help me. He is as strong as a lion if he attacks us, but he will not dare. Throw at travellers, will he? Come on."

Melchior was already striding forward, with his axe handle ready; and, angry at getting no farther explanation, Dale followed, with Saxe close up, now taking and holding the lanthorn on high so that it nearly touched the icy roof.

They were not kept long in suspense, for there was another hideous cry, which seemed to send all the blood back to the boy's heart, and then there was a rush made from the dark part of the grotto; a loud, excited ejaculation or two; the sound of a heavy blow delivered with a staff; and in the dim light cast by the lanthorn Saxe saw that both Dale and Melchior were engaged in a desperate struggle.

The boy's position was exciting in the extreme, and thought after thought flashed through his brain as to what he should do, the result being that he did nothing, only held the lanthorn, so that those who struggled and wrestled, before him could see.

In spite of the hoarse, inhuman howling he could hear close to him, all superstitious notions were now gone. Dale and Melchior were too evidently engaged with human beings like themselves; and the next instant there was a heavy blow, a cry and a fall.

"Rightly served," cried Melchior, "whoever you are. Now, herr, you hold him, and I'll use my rope."

"Quick, then!" panted Dale hoarsely: "he's too strong for me. Hah!"

Dale was heavily thrown, and Saxe could dimly see a short, squat figure upon his breast. Then he saw Melchior appear out of the gloom, and quick as lightning twist a loop of the rope tightly round the arms of the figure, binding them to its side.

"Now, herr, up with you," cried Melchior, "and help me. Show the light, Herr Saxe. Ah! that's right: down on his face. Good. Your foot on the back of his neck. Now I have him. Good English rope: he will not break that."

As the guide spoke he wound his rope round the figure's hands, which he had dragged behind its back, and tied them fast, serving the legs in the same way, in spite of the fierce howlings and horrible yellings made.

"That will do," cried the guide at last, and he stooped down over his prisoner. "Not hurt, are you, herr?"

"Well—yes, I am. It was like wrestling with a bull, and he has bitten my arm."

"Not through your clothes, herr?" cried the guide excitedly.

"No: I suppose it is only like a pinch; but it was as if it were nipped in a vice."

"Show the light here, young herr," continued Melchior, as he turned the captive over. "He is beautiful, is he not?"

"Horrible!" ejaculated Dale, with a shudder. "Good heavens! who and what is he?"

"The most hideous cretin in Switzerland, herr. Poor wretch! he had no brains, but his strength is terrible. He is from the valley next to Andregg's. I don't know what he can be doing here."

"I know," cried Saxe excitedly: "watching us."

"No," said Melchior: "he has not the sense, unless—Here, I must have hit some one else in the dark. There were two. Give me the light!"

He snatched the lanthorn and stepped farther in, to bend down over another prostrate figure.

"It is!" he cried. "Pierre! I don't quite understand as yet. It must be—yes, I see. The wretch!—it is his doing. He must have been watching us, and set this creature—this animal—to do his work—do what he wanted. But no: Herr Dale, Herr Saxe, I am puzzled."

"Hooray!" shouted Saxe. "I have it!"

"What!" cried Dale, who was stanching the blood which flowed from his nose.

"The crystals!" cried Saxe. "They must have hidden them here."

Melchior took a dozen steps farther into the ice-cave, having to stoop now, and then he uttered a triumphant jodel.

"Come here, herrs!" he cried, holding down the lanthorn. "Look! All are here."

Saxe darted forward, to be followed more cautiously by Dale, and the party stood gazing down at the glittering heap of magnificent crystals hidden there as the least likely place to be searched.

For, as Pierre afterwards confessed, he had heard the plans made as he stood, on their first coming, in the stable, and then and there determined to possess himself of the valuable specimens the English party and their guide might find. In spite of his vacant look, he was possessed of plenty of low cunning, and he at once secured the dog-like services of the cretin, who had been his companion in the mountains for years, and obeyed him with the dumb fidelity of a slave.

The task was comparatively easy, for their knowledge of the mountains in that wild neighbourhood was far greater than Melchior's. The cretin's strength and activity were prodigious, and he readily learned his lesson from his master, with the result that has been seen.



CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

CLEAR AS CRYSTAL.

Pierre had received so severe a blow from Melchior's axe handle that he was stunned, and when he came to he was so cowed and beaten that he went down on his knees, owned to everything, and begged for mercy, with the result that the miserable inhuman deformity grasped the position, and, uttering piteous whines and howls, seemed to be imploring mercy, too.

"Look here, Pierre," said Melchior: "I have but to send down to the village to get a messenger to take a letter to the town, and the police will fetch you to prison."

"No, no," pleaded the culprit, and he implored for mercy again in the most abject terms.

"A year in prison would do him good, herr," said Melchior. "He is no Switzer, but a disgrace to his country. We Swiss are honest, honourable men, and he is a thief."

Pierre fell on his knees, and began to ask for pity again. "Get up, dog!" cried Melchior; and turning from him he began to untie the hideous deformity whose wild eyes were watching them in a frightened way.

"What are you going to do?" cried Dale. "You forget how strong he is."

"No, herr, I remember; and I am going to make use of it; he is tamed now. Look here, Pierre, you and Mad Fritz will carry those crystals all down to Andregg's."

"Yes, Herr Melchior—yes," cried Pierre abjectly.

"Stop! You can have the mule to help you, and for the next journey you can bring the donkey too."

"Yes, Herr Melchior; but you will not let the English nobleman send me to prison," he cried.

"We shall see. Get to work, both of you, and bring out the best. The herr will choose which."

"Yes," cried the man eagerly; and Melchior turned to Dale. "You will have a fair mule-load taken down to the chalet at once, herr, will you not?"

"Yes, of course."

"Good; and we can leave the others here, and send these two to fetch them."

"But you can't trust them," whispered Saxe. "Oh yes, I can, herr, now," said Melchior proudly. "The law is very strong here in this canton; and being so strong, it is seldom put in force. People are honest here, in spite of what this man has done. My life on it now, herr, Pierre will bring every crystal down to the chalet."

"But the cretin?"

"Will do exactly as he is told. Here, Pierre, take Gros and go to our camp. Bring the tent and everything back here while we get out the crystals. Take Fritz with you."

"Yes, Herr Melchior," said the man humbly; and then, turning to the cretin, he said something in a curious harsh guttural way, and the poor creature sprang after him and out into the day.

"Then you feel that you can trust them?" said Dale.

"Yes, herr, you may be sure of that. Everything will be taken down to Andregg's—never fear. Ah! how plain everything seems now! The stones thrown at us—eh?"

"Never mind about them," cried Saxe excitedly. "You've sent those two off with the mule, and they'll take away our lunch, and I'm getting hungry now."

"Sure, I had forgotten," cried the guide, and he ran out. They heard him jodel and check Pierre and his hideous companion, so that the food was left behind.

This seen to, Melchior resumed what he was about to say in the ice-cave.

"You will communicate with the authorities, herr, about your great find?"

"Of course," said Dale.

"That will frighten Pierre, when they come to take charge of the crystals. You cannot punish that poor Heaven-smitten creature Fritz."

"No, certainly not."

"Then I would ask you, herr, if the man Pierre is patient and obedient, not to punish him more. He is a poor half-witted creature, and the temptation was too much for him."

"I shall not punish him."

"Thank you, herr."

"But," said Saxe, "you said that the authorities would take possession of the crystals!"

"Yes, herr, in the name of the canton. But they will not be ungenerous. They will like good specimens for our museums; but they will let Herr Dale choose and take what he wishes to his own country. It is for science, and we Swiss are as proud to welcome all scientific men to explore our country as we are to serve those who merely come to admire and return again and again, to see the mountains, glaciers and lakes of our dear fatherland."

All fell out as Melchior had foretold. Pierre and his follower soon returned with the tent, and humbly accepted some food before loading the mule, and then themselves, with some of the choicest crystals, which were deposited safely in Andregg's chalet. The next day they made a journey with the two animals alone, and brought back more; and again on the following day they set off and brought the rest, Andregg gazing with astonishment at the magnificent collection.

In due time people from the principal city of the canton arrived, and the whole of the crystals were taken on mules to the Rathhaus, where soon after Dale was invited to attend with his companion and their guide.

They went, and were warmly complimented by the chief magistrate and the fathers of the city upon their great discovery, following which they were invited to choose what specimens they liked.

They chose so very modestly that the selection was more than doubled, and in due time reached Old England's shores, to add lustre to several collections and museums.

Dale kept his word about Pierre, and quietly incited Saxe to make him a present when they went away.

"Because he doesn't deserve it," said Saxe, who also made a point of giving the unfortunate cretin an object which set his eyes rolling with delight every time it was taken out. This was a large knife with a collection of odds and ends stored in the handle: toothpick, lancet blade, tweezers, screwdriver, horse-hoof picker, and corkscrew, the latter being, as Saxe said, so likely to prove useful.

A month later, after a warm parting from old Andregg and his wife, who made her apron quite wet with tears, and insisted upon presenting Saxe with a very nasty-smelling cheese of her own make, the little party journeyed back through the various valleys, and on to the lovely lake of deep waters, where the mountains rose up like walls on either side, and then on and on to Waldberg, whence they were to start next day for home.

And then came the parting from the guide—the brave, faithful companion of many months.

"And now, Melchior!" said Dale, "I want you to accept this, not as payment, but as a gift from one friend to another—a present to the man whose hand was always ready to save us in perilous times."

"That, herr!" said Melchior. "No, no: you have paid me nobly, and it has not been work, but a pleasure journey with two friends."

"Nonsense, man: take it."

"But, herr!" cried Melchior. "That watch for a poor Swiss guide!—it is gold!"

"Well, man, yours is a golden heart! Take it, and some day you may tell your son that it came from an English boy and man who looked upon you as friends. The watch was mine; the chain is from Saxe here: they are yours."

The tears stood in Melchior's eyes as the watch was handed to Saxe, who thrust it into the guide's pocket. Then he grasped their hands.

"Good-bye," he said, in perfect English—"Leben Sie wohl. Ah!" he cried excitedly: "I know French but badly; but there is a farewell they have, herrs, which fits so well. The mountains are here, and everlasting. It is nearly winter now, but the summer will come again, when the snows are melting, and the valleys will be green and beautiful once more; and when those bright days are here I shall see that the peaks are waiting to be climbed and that there are perils to be bravely met by those who love our land; and then I shall pray. Herr Dale, that you will come again, and that you, Herr Saxe, will come, and, taking me by the hand, say, as you have so often said, 'where to to-day?' Make me happy, gentlemen— me, the man you called more than guide, your friend—tell me you will come again."

"We will, please God—we will!" cried Saxe.

"The words I would have said," said Dale.

"Then, now for those words of French, dear herr: Au revoir!"

THE END.