He was waist deep. A stentorian yell followed:

"Ho! hallo! hi!--avast! Hold on there abaft! My legs are waublin' in
nothin'!"

His great weight had indeed nearly plunged him into a hidden crevasse,
over which those who preceded him had passed in safety. If the Captain
had stood alone that crevasse would certainly have been his grave, but
his friends held him tight, and in a few seconds he was dragged out of
danger.

"Well, well," he said, wiping some large drops of perspiration from his
brow, as he stood on the other side of the chasm, "land-lubbers talk
about seafarin' men havin' nothin' but a plank between them an' death,
but to my thinkin' the rottenest plank that ever was launched is
absolute safety compared to `a snow-wreath.'"

"Ah! Captain," said the Professor, laughing, "you think so just now
because you're not used to it. In a few weeks you'll hold a different
opinion."

"May be so," replied the Captain quietly, "but it don't feel so--heave
ahead, my hearties!"

Thus encouraged the party proceeded with caution, the guide sounding the
snow at each step with his long axe-handle as he moved in advance.

Slowly they mounted higher and higher, occasionally meeting with, but
always overcoming, difficulties, until towards evening they reached the
little log cabin on the Grands Mulets, not sorry to find in it a
sufficient though humble resting-place for the night.

Here they proceeded to make themselves comfortable. Some firewood had
been carried up by the porters, with which a fire was kindled, wet
garments were hung up to dry, and hot coffee was prepared, while the sun
sank in a gorgeous world of amber and crimson fire.

One by one the stars came out and gradually twinkled into brilliancy,
until at last the glorious host of heaven shone in the deepening sky
with an intensity of lustre that cannot be described, contrasting
strangely with the pallid ghostly aspect of the surrounding snow-fields.
These were the only trace of earth that now remained to greet the eyes
of our travellers when they looked forth from the door of the little
hut. Besides being calm and beautiful, the night was intensely cold.
There is this peculiarity, on Alpine mountain tops, that when the sun's
last rays desert them the temperature falls abruptly, there being little
or nothing of earth or rock to conserve the heat poured out during the
day. The mountaineers, therefore, soon after night closed in, found it
necessary to shu