r to whom it had been intrusted, he
being under the impression that it would not be further required.

"Blockhead!" cried the Professor, whose enthusiastic spirit was easily
roused to indignation, "it was your duty to carry it till ordered to lay
it down. You were hired to act, sir, not to think. Obedience is the
highest virtue of a servant! Shall we send him back for it?" he said,
turning to Antoine with a flushed countenance.

"Not now, Monsieur," answered the guide, "it would create needless
delay. We shall try to work round the crevasse."

This they did by following its edge until they found a part where
crossing was possible, though attended with considerable danger in
consequence of the wedge-like and crumbling nature of the ice.

Hoping that such a difficulty would not occur again they pushed on, but
had not gone far when another, and still more impassable, fissure
presented itself.

"How provoking, couldn't we jump it?" said Lewis, looking inquiringly
into the dark-blue depths.

"Pr'aps _you_ might, youngster, with your half fledged spider-legs,"
said the Captain, "but you'll not catch fourteen-stun-six goin' over
_that_ with its own free will. What's to be done now, Antoine?"

The guide, after looking at the crevasse for a few minutes, said that
the next thing to be done was to look for a snow-bridge, which he had no
doubt would be found somewhere. In search of this he scattered the
whole party, and in a few minutes a loud shout from the chamois-hunter
told that he had been successful. The members of the party at once
converged towards him, but found that the success was only partial. He
had indeed found a part of the crevasse, which, during some of the wild
storms so frequent on the mountain, had been bridged over by a
snow-wreath, but the central part of the bridge had given way, and it
was thus divided by a gap of about a foot wide. This would have been
but a small and insignificant step to take had the substance been solid,
but although the ice on one side was strong the opposite edge was
comparatively soft snow, and not much more than a foot thick. The
chamois-hunter, being the lightest of the party, was called to the front
and ordered to test the strength of the frail bridge, if bridge it could
be called.

"Why, he might as well try to step on a bit of sea-foam," said the
Captain in surprise.

Lawrence, Lewis, and Slingsby, having as yet had no experience of such
places, expressed, or