err, let me untie you."

He turned to Saxe, who submitted to the operation without a word, and
then watched the guide as he carefully laid up the rope in rings upon
his left arm. Meanwhile, Dale had unfastened his end, and stood waiting
to hand it to the guide, who secured it round the coil before hanging it
across his breast.

He then carefully examined the level of the water by bending downward
and noting where it now ran against a crack in the rock.

"Sinking?" cried Saxe eagerly.

"Rising," replied the guide laconically.

Then there was a long silence, during which Saxe, as if doubting that
the guide was right, carefully examined the walls of the chasm, but
always with the same result: he could see rifts and places in plenty
where he could have climbed high enough to be beyond reach of the water
even if it rose thirty or forty feet; but they were all on the other
side, which was slightly convex, while their side, as the guide had
pointed out, was concave, and would have matched exactly if the sides
had been driven together.

"No, herr," said Melchior quietly, "I should not have stopped so still
if there had been a chance to get away. I should like to say one thing
more about the water rising: if we are swept down, try both of you not
to cling to each other or me for help. One is quite useless at such a
time, and we should only exhaust each other."

Dale nodded, and Saxe felt as if one prop which held him to existence
had been suddenly struck away.

There was another dreary pause, during which they listened to the
waters' roar; and Melchior bent down again, and rose to his feet once
more, with his brow rugged.

"Rising," he said hoarsely; and then he leaned back against the rock
with his arms crossed and his eyes half-closed, silent as his
companions, for talking was painfully laborious at such a time.

An hour must have passed, and every time Melchior bent down he rose with
the same stern look upon his countenance, the darkness making it
heavier-looking and more weird. Both Saxe and Dale could see the
difference plainly now, for it must have been a foot higher at least,
and they knew it was only a matter of time before it would reach their
feet.

And as Saxe stood there, miserably dejected, he began thinking and
picturing to himself the snow melting and trickling down thousands of
tiny cracks which netted the tops of the mountains, and then joined
together in greater veins, and these again in great