. It is perfectly safe; and then we can
take the slope above there, and we are on the shoulder. Then, as we
arranged, we'll take to the rock or the snow again, whichever seems
best."

"Ready, Saxe?"

"Yes," said the boy shortly; and for the next hour they tramped over
snow like hailstones, and then zigzagged up a slope beyond it, where in
the steepest places a little cutting became necessary; but this was all
mastered in time, and the shoulder was reached, from which half a mile
away the final peak arose--a blunt hillock with perfectly smooth snow on
one side, bare rock, broken and rugged, on the other, while the snow at
the top seemed to have been cut clean off perpendicularly.

Half an hour's rugged walk brought them to a point where they had to
decide whether to turn north and climb the snow, or south and take to
the bare steep rock.

"What do you say, Melchior?" said Dale, giving the guide a meaning look
at the same time.

"The snow is too steep, and it looks dangerous there. It is now well on
in the afternoon, and our weight might start it; and if it did--you
know."

"What!" said Saxe excitedly. Dale was silent for a few moments.

"I do not want to scare you, lad, but you have to learn these things.
If we started the snow at that angle, it would all go down with a rush
into the nearest valley."

"And what would become of us!"

Neither of the men answered; but Saxe knew.

"That is going to be a stiff climb, Melchior," said Dale, after a few
minutes' searching the place with his eyes.

"I dare say it will be, sir," replied the guide. "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

They started again, taking to the rocky face where the steepness kept
the snow from hanging. The sun was now shining full upon them, adding
its heat to that produced by the exertion. The advance was slow and
tentative for some time, resulting in several failures; and so painfully
steep had the place become that Dale twice, to Saxe's great relief,
suggested that it would be better to give it up, and the guide seemed to
be unwillingly about to agree, when all at once a narrow rift opened out
before them.

"We're at the top, herr," he cried joyfully; and, stepping out, he
stopped in the furrow carved in the mountain's side, and prepared to
climb.

"Can you get up there?" said Saxe, wiping his streaming face and gazing
skyward.

"Yes, herr, and you can too. Once up there, the rest will be easy."

Dale looked doubtful, but he said noth