. This is one of the many
chateaux at your disposal."

A wild swirl of sleet lashed them venomously. This first whip of the
gale seemed to have the spitefulness of disappointed rage.

Helen felt her arm grasped. Bower led her to a doorway cunningly
disposed out of the path of the dreaded southwest wind. At that
instant all the woman in her recognized that the man was big, and
strong, and self reliant, and that it was good to have him near,
shouting reassuring words that were whirled across the rock-crowned
glacier by the violence of the tempest.

CHAPTER IX

"ETTA'S FATHER"

Though the hut was a crude thing, a triumph of essentials over
luxuries, Helen had never before hailed four walls and a roof with
such heartfelt, if silent, thanksgiving. She sank exhausted on a rough
bench, and watched the matter-of-fact Engadiners unpacking the stores
and firewood carried in their rucksacks. Their businesslike air
supplied the tonic she needed. Though the howling storm seemed to
threaten the tiny refuge with destruction, these two men set to work,
coolly and methodically, to prepare a meal. Barth arranged the
contents of Karl's bulky package on a small table, and the porter
busied himself with lighting a fire in a Swiss stove that stood in the
center of the outer room. An inner apartment loomed black and
uninviting through an open doorway. Helen discovered later that some
scanty accommodation was provided there for those who meant to sleep
in the hut in readiness for an early ascent, while it supplied a
separate room in the event of women taking part in an expedition.

Bower offered her a quantity of brandy and water. She declined it,
declaring that she needed only time to regain her breath. He was a man
who might be trusted not to pester anyone with well meant but useless
attentions. He went to the door, lit a cigarette, and seemed to be
keenly interested in the sleet as it pelted the moraine or gathered in
drifts in the minor fissures of the glacier.

Within a remarkably short space of time, Karl had concocted two cups
of steaming coffee. Helen was then all aglow. Her strength was
restored. The boisterous wind had crimsoned her cheeks beneath the
tan. She had never looked such a picture of radiant womanhood as after
this tussle with the storm. Luckily her clothing was not wet, since
the travelers reached the _cabane_ at the very instant the elements
became really aggressive. It was a quite composed and reinvigor