the
best route to be followed, he chanced to swing his axe carelessly and
let it fall. Instantly it turned over the edge, and shot like an arrow
down the slope. He was ice-man enough to know that the loss of his axe
in such circumstances was equivalent to the signing of his death-warrant
and his face flushed with the gush of feeling that resulted from the
accident. Fortunately, the head of the weapon caught on a lamp of ice
just at the edge of the crevasse, and the handle hung over it.
Something akin to desperation now took possession of the youth. The
slope _was_ far too steep to slide down. Not having his axe, it was
impossible to cut the necessary steps. In any case it was excessively
dangerous, for, although the snow was not new, it lay on such an incline
that the least weight on it might set it in motion, in which case
inevitable death would have been the result. The case was too critical
to admit of delay or thought. At all hazards the axe must be recovered.
He therefore lay down with his face to the slope, and began to kick
foot-holds with the toe of his boots. It was exceedingly slow and
laborious work, for he dared not to kick with all his force, lest he
should lose his balance, and, indeed, he only retained it by thrusting
both arms firmly into the upper holes and fixing one foot deep in a
lower hole, while with the other he cautiously kicked each new step in
succession. At last, after toiling steadily thus for two hours, he
regained his axe.

The grip with which he seized the handle, and the tender feeling with
which he afterwards laid it on his shoulder, created in him a new idea
as to the strange affection with which man can be brought to regard
inanimate objects, and the fervency with which he condemned his former
flippancy, and vowed never more to go out on the high Alps alone, formed
a striking commentary on the adage, "Experience teaches fools!"

For some time after this Lewis advanced with both speed and caution. At
each point of vantage that he reached he made a rapid and careful survey
of all the ground before him, decided on the exact route which he should
take, as far as the eye could range, and then refused every temptation
to deviate from it save when insurmountable obstacles presented
themselves in the shape of unbridged crevasses or sheer ice-precipices.
Such obstacles were painfully numerous, but by indomitable perseverance,
and sometimes by a desperate venture, he overcame them.