uch an extent that he nearly came down
headlong. "Now, steady! Give me your hand."

The rock was kept in position now by the pressure on one side, but as
Dale sprang up to Saxe's side, it began to rise again, and they had hard
work to preserve their balance, as they stood straining their eyes to
where they could see a man mounted upon some animal riding slowly across
the green level lying in a loop of the stream.

"No, no," said Dale sadly, "that cannot be Melchior. It is some
herdsman; but we'll go and meet him and get his help."

"It is Melchior," said Saxe decidedly.

"I would to Heaven it were, Saxe! Impossible! That man is a mile away.
Distances are deceptive."

"I don't care if he's a hundred miles away," cried Saxe; "it's old Melk,
and he's safe."

"You are deceiving yourself, boy."

"I'm not, sir. I'm sure of it; and he's all right. You see!"

He snatched off his hat, and began to wave it, bursting out at the same
time into the most awful parody of a Swiss jodel that ever startled the
mountains, and made them echo back the wild, weird sounds.

"There! Look!" cried Saxe excitedly, as the mounted man took off his
hat, waved it in the air, and there floated toward them, faintly heard
but beautifully musical, the familiar jodel they had heard before.
Then, as it ceased, it was repeated from the rocks to the right, far
louder, and made more musical by the reaction nearer at hand.

"There!" cried Saxe, "what did I tell you?" and he capered about on the
moving rock, waving his hat and shouting again, "I--o--a--a--de--ah--
diah--diah--Oh! Murder!"

Dale was in the act of saying, "Take care!" when the mass of stone
careened over, and Saxe was compelled to take a flying leap downward on
to another piece, off which he staggered ten feet lower, to come down
with a crash.

"Hurt yourself!" cried Dale anxiously.

"Hurt myself, sir!" said Saxe reproachfully, as he scrambled up slowly:
"just you try it and see. Oh my!" he continued rubbing himself, "ain't
these stones hard!"

"Here,--give me your hand."

"Thankye. It's all right, only a bruise or two. I don't mind, now old
Melk's safe."

"Don't deceive yourself, Saxe," said Dale sadly.

"What! Didn't you hear him jodel?"

"Yes, and you may hear every Swiss mountaineer we meet do that. You
hailed him, and the man answered, and he is coming toward us," continued
Dale, straining his eyes again to watch the slowly approaching figure.
"Bah! How