to bet with him. Such a man is apt to run to extremes. It may
be that Spencer was only talking through his hat, as they say in New
York."

Helen had the best of reasons for rejecting this version of the story.
Her perceptive faculties, always well developed, were strung to high
tension in Maloja. The social pinpricks inflicted there had rendered
her more alert, more cautious, than was her wont. She was quite sure,
for instance, judging from a number of slight indications, that
Spencer was deliberately avoiding any opportunity of making Bower's
acquaintance. More than once, when an introduction seemed to be
imminent, the American effaced himself. Other men in the hotel were
not like that--they rather sought the great man's company. She
wondered if Bower had noticed it. Despite his candid, almost generous,
disclaimer of motive, there was an undercurrent of hostility in his
words that suggested a feeling of pique. She climbed the rocky path in
silence until Bower spoke again.

"How do the boots go?" he asked.

"Splendidly, thanks. It was exceedingly kind of you to take such
trouble about them. I had no idea one had to wear such heavy nails,
and that tip of yours about the extra stockings is excellent."

"You will acknowledge the benefit most during the descent. I have
known people become absolutely lame on the home journey through
wearing boots only just large enough for ordinary walking. As for the
clamping of the nails over the edges of the soles, the sharp stones
render that imperative. When you have crossed a moraine or two, and a
peculiarly nasty _geroell_ that exists beyond the hut, if we have time
to make an easy ascent, you will understand the need of extra strong
footwear."

Helen favored him with a shy smile. "Long hours of reading have
revealed the nature of a moraine," she said; "but, please, what is a
_geroell_?"

"A slope of loose stones. Let me see, what do they call it in
Scotland and Cumberland? Ah, yes, a scree. On the French side of the
Alps the same thing is known as a _casse_."

"How well you know this country and its ways! Have you climbed many of
the well known peaks?"

"Some years ago I scored my century beyond twelve thousand feet. That
is pretty fair for an amateur."

"Have you done the Matterhorn?"

"Yes, four times. Once I followed Tyndall's example, and converted the
summit into a pass between Switzerland and Italy."

"How delightful! I suppose you have met many of the famous gui