ing
smash, and when the Captain seized Gillie by the back of his trousers
with one hand and lifted him tenderly out of the midst of the _debris_,
the limp way in which he hung suggested the idea that a broken bottle
must have penetrated his vitals and finished him.

It was not so, however. Gillie's sagacity told him that he would
probably be wounded if he were to move. He wisely, therefore, remained
quite passive, and allowed himself to be lifted out of danger.

"Nobody hurt, I 'ope," he said, on being set on his legs; "it was a
awk'ard plunge."

"Awk'ard? you blue spider," cried the Captain; "you deserve to be
keel-hauled, or pitched into a crevasse. Look alive now, an' clear up
the mess you've made."

Fortunately the feast was about concluded when this _contretemps_
occurred, so that no serious loss was sustained. Some of the gentlemen
lighted their pipes and cigars, to solace themselves before commencing
the return journey. The ladies went off to saunter and to botanise, and
Slingsby attempted to sketch the scenery.

And here again, as on the previous excursion, Captain Wopper received a
chill in regard to his matrimonial hopes. When the ladies rose, Lewis
managed to engage Nita in an interesting conversation on what he styled
the flora of central Europe, and led her away. Emma was thus left
without her companion. Now, thought the Captain, there's your chance,
Dr Lawrence, go in and win! But Lawrence did not avail himself of the
chance. He suffered Emma to follow her friend, and remained behind
talking with the Professor on the vexed subject of the cause of glacial
motion.

"Most extraor'nary," thought the Captain, somewhat nettled, as well as
disappointed. "What can the youngster mean? She's as sweet a gal as a
fellow would wish to see, an' yet he don't pay no more attention to her
than if she was an old bumboat 'ooman. Very odd. Can't make it out
nohow!"

Captain Wopper was not the first, and will _certainly_ not be the last,
to experience difficulty in accounting for the conduct of young men and
maidens in this world of cross-currents and queer fancies.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. Such is actually true at the present time of the Gorner
glacier, which has for a long time been advancing, and, during the last
sixty years or so, has overturned between forty and fifty chalets.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

SHOWS WHAT DANGERS MAY BE ENCOUNTERE