g once when the mule
uttered one of its peculiar squeals. But no one was sufficiently
alarmed to get up, and the incident was forgotten next morning, when one
of many days of an uneventful nature commenced, during which the party
made excursions in different directions: into the ice grotto; across the
glacier to the Bergstock; up to first one and then another snowfield,
and among magnificent views in all directions, and under endless
atmospheric changes such as gave constant variety to the surroundings.
And every night Saxe confided to Melchior that he was tired of it all,
and every morning was refreshed and ready for fresh action.

The perils of the crevasse adventure were almost forgotten; but it
seemed to the boy that Dale shrank from going into any fresh danger, and
this troubled him.

"I suppose Mr Dale thinks I behaved badly, and was too young," he said.
"But only let me have a chance, and I'll show him I am not such a
coward as he thinks."

Then came the evening when Melchior announced that the food supply must
be renewed by a long journey to Andregg's chalet, for bread and coffee
and butter could not be easily obtained, like wood.

"Will the herr come back with me, or shall I go alone?"

"Go alone, Melchior, and be as quick back as you can."

The next morning when they woke the guide and the mule were gone,
probably having started at the first faint dawn.

"Are you going to wait about the tent till he comes back, sir?" said
Saxe, as they sat over the breakfast they had prepared.

"No: we will have two or three little excursions of our own, just up to
and along the edge of the snow-line; but to-day I should like to visit
the glacier again, and see those two crevasses coolly."

An hour after they were well on their way, knowledge having made the
task comparatively easy. But it was rather a risky journey, before they
had arrived at the spot which was pretty deeply impressed upon their
minds: for every now and then some mass of worn ice fell crashing down,
and raised the echoes of the narrow valley, while a cool wind seemed to
have been set free by the fall, and went sighing down the gorge.

They were prepared to find the lower crevasse, from which they had
recovered Melchior, much less terrible by daylight. To their surprise,
it was far more vast and grand, and as they advanced cautiously to the
edge and peered down into the blue depths, they both drew breath and
gazed at each other with a peculiarly