a hundred paces behind him
stood Rudy, upon the highest point of the rock, watching a great
vulture hovering in the air; with a single stroke of his wing the bird
might easily cast the creeping hunter into the abyss beneath, and make
him his prey. Rudy's uncle had eyes for nothing but the chamois,
who, with its young kid, had just appeared round the edge of the rock.
So Rudy kept his eyes fixed on the bird, he knew well what the great
creature wanted; therefore he stood in readiness to discharge his
gun at the proper moment. Suddenly the chamois made a spring, and
his uncle fired and struck the animal with the deadly bullet; while
the young kid rushed away, as if for a long life he had been
accustomed to danger and practised flight. The large bird, alarmed
at the report of the gun, wheeled off in another direction, and Rudy's
uncle was saved from danger, of which he knew nothing till he was told
of it by the boy.

While they were both in pleasant mood, wending their way
homewards, and the uncle whistling the tune of a song he had learnt in
his young days, they suddenly heard a peculiar sound which seemed to
come from the top of the mountain. They looked up, and saw above them,
on the over-hanging rock, the snow-covering heave and lift itself as a
piece of linen stretched on the ground to dry raises itself when the
wind creeps under it. Smooth as polished marble slabs, the waves of
snow cracked and loosened themselves, and then suddenly, with the
rumbling noise of distant thunder, fell like a foaming cataract into
the abyss. An avalanche had fallen, not upon Rudy and his uncle, but
very near them. Alas, a great deal too near!

"Hold fast, Rudy!" cried his uncle; "hold fast, with all your
might."

Then Rudy clung with his arms to the trunk of the nearest tree,
while his uncle climbed above him, and held fast by the branches.
The avalanche rolled past them at some distance; but the gust of
wind that followed, like the storm-wings of the avalanche, snapped
asunder the trees and bushes over which it swept, as if they had
been but dry rushes, and threw them about in every direction. The tree
to which Rudy clung was thus overthrown, and Rudy dashed to the
ground. The higher branches were snapped off, and carried away to a
great distance; and among these shattered branches lay Rudy's uncle,
with his skull fractured. When they found him, his hand was still
warm; but it would have been impossible to recognize his face. Rudy