lp. But it really is a matter of habit. Why, people never think of
the danger, but every time they run up or downstairs they risk a severe
fall; and I once knew of a sailor lad, accustomed to go aloft and climb
over the bulwarks into the main chains or the rigging under the
bowsprit, who would pull all the clothes off his bed of a night and make
them up on the floor, because he was afraid of tumbling out of bed in
the night. Hah! we are getting near the end of the lake. Why, Saxe, it
does look black and deep!"

"But I don't see any place where it runs out," said Saxe. "There ought
to be a river or a waterfall here, oughtn't there!"

"Wait a few minutes, and we shall see. Ah! to be sure--there it is; the
sides are so close together that they hardly show, but you can see now
where the ledge runs, right to that corner."

A hundred yards farther along the narrow ledge--a fault in the strata
which formed that side of the lake--and all doubt of their being at the
exit of the waters was at rest, for Melchior stopped short where the
ledge widened into a little platform at the angle of the rock forming
one of the sides of a mere crack in the titanic wall of perpendicular
mountain, which in places actually overhung them, and ran up fully a
thousand feet.

The opening where they stood was some twenty feet wide, and through it
the waters of the lake poured with a low rushing sound, which seemed to
deepen farther in to a roar.

Saxe was pressing forward to look in at the opening; but Melchior met
them and pointed back over the lake, at the head of which rose a huge
mountain mass, snow-clad and glistening, on either side of which
glaciers could be seen running sharply down, while away on the left
another winding, frozen river descended.

"Grand!" exclaimed Dale; but the next moment he turned to the opening by
which they stood, the rushing waters having a weird fascination for them
both.

"The schlucht," said Melchior quietly.

"I say," said Saxe: "you don't mean to say we've got to go through
there?"

"Yes," said the guide calmly. "I have never taken a mule through, but I
think we can manage it."

"But is it all like this?" said Saxe, looking aghast.

"Oh no, herr; it runs together a few yards farther in, and is so narrow
that in one place you can stretch your arms and touch both sides at
once."

"Then it is open right through?"

"Yes, herr. The mountain must have split open at some time or other, to
let the