g the message perfectly.

"But Melk was tired and sleepy: he fancied it was secured like that,"
Saxe said to himself.

He had no time to think more, for Dale spoke to him. "Now, my lad," he
said, "up with you; or shall one of us go first?"

"Oh, I'll go," said Saxe, turning to the gloomy opening, and reaching
out his hand for the dull grey rope, which showed clearly against the
black face of rock on the opposite side, not twenty feet away.

"Get a good hold, herr; next turn face inward, and swing yourself a
little sidewise; then you will be on good climbing rock, and can easily
get up."

Saxe nodded, took hold of the rope, turned round, reached up as high as
he could, and then was about to throw his whole weight upon it, when it
gave way, and came down upon him. This, with the surprise, threw him
off his balance, and he would have gone down backward, headlong to the
bottom of the narrow cleft, but for the action of the guide, who darted
out one hand and caught him.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS.

Saxe dropped, but no farther than the sill of the entrance, where
Melchior was able to hold him, while Dale reached over and gripped the
boy by the belt and hauled him in.

"Oh, Melchior!" cried Dale indignantly; "I thought I could have trusted
you to secure a rope."

"But I did--I did, herr!" cried the man passionately. "I could have
staked my life upon that rope being secure."

"I spoke to you at the time about it not seeming safe."

"The herr said the rock did not look secure, not the rope. The rock has
not come down."

"It is enough for me that the rope came down. Another instant, and that
poor lad would have lost his life."

"Yes, herr; but we saved him. I cannot understand it."

"Has the rope broken?" said Dale, as it was hauled in.

"No, herr," said Melchior, as he examined the rope in the darkness;
"and, see, the loop is here and the knots still fast!"

"It is very strange," said Dale.

"Yes, herr. Ever since I have grown up I have laughed at all the old
stories about the dragons in the mountains, and the strange elves,
gnomes, and kobolds said to live down in the deep mines; but what can
one say to this? Is there an evil spirit to this crystal mine who is
angry because we have come, and who seeks to punish us for intruding?"

"No, there is not!" cried Dale, with genuine English unbelief in such
legends: "nothing of the kind. The loop slipped off the stone; so now
climb up