w hill, and
surrounding it at a stately distance stands guard the giant majesty of
Alps, with shoulders in the clouds and god-like heads above them,
looking on--always looking on--sometimes themselves ethereal clouds of
snow-whiteness, some times monster bare crags which pierce the blue,
and whose unchanging silence seems to know the secret of the
everlasting. And on the hill which this august circle holds in its
embrace, as though it enclosed a treasure, stands the old, old, towered
fortress built as a citadel for the Prince Archbishops, who were kings
in their domain in the long past centuries when the splendor and power
of ecclesiastical princes was among the greatest upon earth.

And as you approach the town--and as you leave it--and as you walk
through its streets, the broad calm empty-looking ones, or the narrow
thoroughfares whose houses seem so near to each other, whether you
climb or descend--or cross bridges, or gaze at churches, or step out on
your balcony at night to look at the mountains and the moon--always it
seems that from some point you can see it gazing down at you--the
citadel of Hohen-Salzburg.

It was to Salzburg they went next, because at Salzburg was to be found
the man who looked like a hair-dresser and who worked in a barber's
shop. Strange as it might seem, to him also must be carried the Sign.

"There may be people who come to him to be shaved--soldiers, or men who
know things," The Rat worked it out, "and he can speak to them when he
is standing close to them. It will be easy to get near him. You can
go and have your hair cut."

The journey from Munich was not a long one, and during the latter part
of it they had the wooden-seated third-class carriage to themselves.
Even the drowsy old peasant who nodded and slept in one corner got out
with his bundles at last. To Marco the mountains were long-known
wonders which could never grow old. They had always and always been so
old! Surely they had been the first of the world! Surely they had
been standing there waiting when it was said "Let there be Light." The
Light had known it would find them there. They were so silent, and yet
it seemed as if they said some amazing thing--something which would
take your breath from you if you could hear it. And they never
changed. The clouds changed, they wreathed them, and hid them, and
trailed down them, and poured out storm torrents on them, and thundered
against them, and darted forked lightni