eather.

"Yes, it is all very big, Mr Dale," he said suddenly.

"Wait a bit. You don't half know yet. Say it's bigger than you
thought. Getting harder, isn't it, Melchior?"

"Yes, herr. If it gets much harder, I shall have to cut steps; but only
here and there, where it's steepest."

"Isn't it steepest now?" said Saxe, who felt as if he could touch the
surface by extending his right hand.

"Oh no, herr. You don't mind?"

"Not a bit," cried the lad: "I like it."

"What's the matter?" said Dale, as they still mounted the dazzling slope
of snow, far now above the dip of the col over which they had come.

"Bad piece here, sir. We'll have the rope. I'll fasten my end and hand
the rest to you, to secure yourselves while I begin cutting."

"Right!" replied Dale; and a minute later he caught the rings of hemp
thrown to him, and rapidly knotted the middle round Saxe, the end to his
own waist; and as he knotted, _click, click! chip, chip_! went the
ice-axe, deftly wielded by the guide, who with two or three blows broke
through enough of the crust to make a secure footing while the ice flew
splintering down the slope in miniature avalanches, with a peculiar
metallic tinkling sound.

"Will there be much to cut?" said Dale.

"No, herr; only a step here and there to make us quite safe,"--and he
chipped away again after a few steps, and broke in others with the toes
of his boots.

"I say," whispered Saxe, "suppose he slipped while he's swinging that
axe round, he'd drag us both down too."

"And by the same argument, if you or I slipped, we should snatch him
from his place."

"Yes; that's what I thought.

"That would only be in a very extreme case; and you may as well learn
your mountaineer's lesson at once. When we are roped together, and one
slips, he generally saves himself by rapidly sticking the sharp pick of
his axe into the snow. He gives the others ample warning by this that
something is wrong before the jerk and strain come upon the rope."

"And what do they do?"

"Drive their ice-picks right into the snow, hang back against the slope,
and tighten the rope from one to the other. So that generally, instead
of a fall, there is only a short slip. Do you understand!"

"Yes, I think so."

"So it is that three or four who understand mountaineering, and work
together and trust each other, go up and down places that would be
impassable to the unskilful. Hah! we are getting to the top of this
slope.