m
of the mountain.

"It's no good to stop thinking about it," he muttered; and lowering
himself down, he began to descend steadily, with the feeling of dread
passing off directly he had started; for the excitement of the work, and
the energy that he had to bring to bear in lowering himself from ledge
to ledge, kept him too busy to think of anything but the task in hand;
so that, in what seemed to be an incredibly short space of time, he was
standing beside Dale.

Then came a warning cry from Melchior, who threw down his end of the
rope, and directly after began to descend with an ease that robbed his
task of all aspect of danger. Every movement was so quietly and easily
made, there was such an elasticity of muscle and absence of strain, that
before the man was half down, both Dale and Saxe were wondering how they
could have thought so much of the task, and on Melchior joining them,
and after descending a little farther, roping them for other steep bits,
they went on easily and well.

And now for about a couple of hours Melchior took them on rapidly down
and down and in and out among bluffs and mountain spurs which he seemed
to know by heart, though to those with him the place grew more
perplexing at every turn. There was a gloomy look, too, now, in the
depths of the various gorges, which told of the coming of evening,
though the various peaks were blazing with orange and gold, and a
refulgent hue overspread the western sky.

"Is it much farther?" said Saxe at last. "I am getting so hungry, I can
hardly get one leg before the other."

"Farther!" said Melchior, smiling. "Do you not see? Up there to the
right is the foot of the glacier; there is the hill from which you saw
the top, and yonder is the patch of forest. Andregg's chalet is just
below."

"I am glad!" cried Saxe. "I thought I was hungry, but it's tired I am.
I shall be too weary to eat."

"Oh no!" said Melchior. "The young herr will eat, and then he will
sleep as we sleep here in these mountains, and wake in the morning ready
for another day. The herr still wants to hunt for crystals?" he added,
glancing at Dale.

"Yes; if you can take me to them," said the latter eagerly.

"I will try, herr; but they have to be sought in the highest solitudes,
on the edge of the precipices, where it is too steep for the snow to
stay, and they say that there are spirits and evil demons guarding the
caverns where they lie."

"And do you believe them?" said