t. "I
must listen till I hear them, and then shout."

He grew calmer now, and listened; but all was perfectly still, and a
chill struck through him as he asked himself a terrible question--

"Where were his companions!"

He had been plodding on, he remembered, with Mr Dale behind him; but he
had not seen a sign of his companion since, though he had seen Melchior,
who had caught him by the wrist, and then--

"Yes: what then?"

He could remember no more, only that horrible confusion as they were
carried down, till he was fighting for breath, buried at the bottom of
the drift.

Saxe listened again, straining his ears for the faintest sound, but
hearing nothing.

"They must have been carried farther," he tried to think; "and as soon
as they can climb up they will begin to seek for me;" and he repeated
this cheering thought to fight back another, which was vague, strange
and terrible--a thought which suggested the impossibility of two people
discovering the tiny hole made by the head of an ice-axe in the midst of
the snow of that tremendous avalanche.

"I don't care; I will not give up hoping," he said to himself, as he
moved the ice-axe gently, and saw a ray or two more light. Then he
began to wonder whether the heat of his body would melt enough of the
snow-ice about him to enable him to work his way out; and in this hope
he waited and rested for a few minutes, for the exertion even of moving
the axe seemed to set his heart beating fast.

Then once more the feeling of horror grew more terrible than he could
bear; and he was fast succumbing to it and losing his senses, when he
fancied that he heard a cry.

It ceased directly; and then, as he listened with every nerve on the
strain, there it was again--faint, apparently very distant, but plainly
enough--the jodel of some Swiss, if it were not that of the guide.

Throwing his head back as far as he could, and keeping the axe handle
tight against the side of the narrow hole, Saxe sent up a despairing cry
for help.

As he ceased he made a desperate struggle to free himself, but it was
useless; and he listened again and to his great joy the jodel came
again, and he answered it.

Then there was a terrible period of suspense; and, as no sound was
heard, he yelled with all his might, and this time there was undoubtedly
an answering call.

Once more he shouted, and a hail came from nearer; and then, to his
despair, it was repeated from farther away, making the u