"Then you would give up and not search for them!" said Dale angrily.

"I would search for them, herr; but it would end in failure. This must
be done by men who know these high mountains as well as I do. Why, if I
wished to hide here, there are places I could get to where I should
never be found."

"But the hiding people want food!"

"Yes, herr," said the guide drily; "and they have got it. A great deal
of what I brought up with Gros has gone. I thought the young herr here
had taken some of it; but I see now."

"Then, what would you do?"

"I would not waste time in hunting for what we shall never discover,
herr. It may be hidden in the mountains, or down some crevasse in the
great glacier. Those crystals were very fine, but we left others behind
in the grotto as beautiful. Why not go and get these, and take what we
find at once to a place of safety?"

"At once? You forget how long a journey it is back."

"No, herr. It is far; but once we have them we must watch, and not be
robbed again like this."

Dale stood thinking for a minute or two, Saxe watching him eagerly.

"Very good advice," he said; "and I will follow it, but not to-day.
Saxe, you must be guardian over the camp. No: we shall want your help,
my lad. Put some food in your wallet, Melchior; and we will try and
trace these people, for there must be more than one."

"Yes, herr; there must be more than one," said Melchior; and hastily
making the provision required, he said that he was ready.

"Now, then," cried Dale; "which way first?"

"One way is as good as another, herr," replied the guide. "It is all
chance. We may go upon their track; we may go right away. Shall I
lead?"

"Yes," said Dale, frowning; and the search began and lasted till
darkness forced them to give up and seek their couches, tired out. For,
taking the camp as a centre, they went off from it and returned, from
every possible direction: not that there were many, for the vast
precipices and hollows around compelled them to be select in their
routes.

But it was all in vain, and from starting there was nothing that guided
them in the slightest degree: for they were in a wilderness where
footprints only showed upon the snow; and wherever they approached an
ice field it was to find the pure white mantle unstained, and not even
showing the track of a bird.

"Will the herr continue the search to-morrow, or go to the grotto?" said
Melchior, as they lay down to sleep.