"What is it?" said Dale.

"Isn't it wonderful, Mr Dale? Only two days ago in London, and here we are in this wild place! Why, you can't hear a sound but the water!"

Almost as he spoke he bounded from the spot where he was standing, and ran a few yards in alarm.

For from somewhere unseen and high above, there was a sudden roar, a terrific crash, then a rushing sound, followed by a dead silence of a few seconds, and then the earth seemed to receive a quivering blow, resulting in a boom like that of some monstrous gun, and the noise now ran up the valley, vibrating from side to side, till it died away in a low moan.

The boy looked wildly from one to the other, to see that his uncle was quite unmoved and that the guide was smiling at him.

"Then that was thunder?" he said inquiringly.

"No; a big piece of rock split off and fell," replied the guide.

"Is there no danger?"

"It would have been dangerous if we had been there."

"But where is 'there'?"

"Up yonder," said the guide, pointing over the pine-wood toward the top of the wall of rock, a perpendicular precipice fully three thousand feet in height. "The rock split off up the mountain somewhere, rushed down, and then fell."

"Can we see?"

"Oh yes; I could find the place," said the guide, looking at Dale.

"No, no: we will go on," said the latter. "It would take us two or three hours. That sort of thing is often going on out here, Saxe."

"But why did it fall? Is any one blasting rock over there?"

"Yes, Nature: blasting with cold and heat."

Saxe looked at him inquiringly.

"You'll soon understand all this, my lad," said Dale. "The rocks high up the mountains are always crumbling down."

"Crumbling? I don't call that crumbling."

"Call it what you like; but that was a crumb which fell down here, my lad. You see the snow and ice over yonder?"

"Yes."

"Well, of course that means that there is constant freezing going on there, except when the sun is blazing down at midday."

"Yes, I understand that," said Saxe.

"Well, the rock gets its veins charged with water from the melting of the snow in the daytime, and at night it freezes again; the water expands in freezing, and splits the rock away, but it does not slip, because it is kept in position by the ice. By-and-by, on an extra hot day, that ice melts, and, there being nothing to support it, the ma.s.s of rock falls, and drives more with it, perhaps, and the whole comes thundering down."

"I should like to see how big the piece was," said Saxe; "it must have been close here."

"No," said the guide; "perhaps two miles away."

Dale made a sign, and they went on again.

"Wait a bit, Saxe, and you'll see plenty of falling rock. I dare say we shall be cannonaded by stones some day."

"But shall we see an avalanche!"

"It's a great chance if we see one of the great falls which fill valleys and bury villages; but if you keep your eyes open I dare say we shall see several small ones to-day."

The lad glanced quickly up, and the meaning of that look was read directly.

"No," said Dale quietly, "I am not joking, but speaking frankly to one whom I have chosen as my companion in this enterprise. Come, Saxe, you and I must now be more like helpmates--I mean, less of man and boy, more like two men who trust each other."

"I shall be very glad," said the boy eagerly.

"Then we start so from this moment. We'll forget you are only sixteen or seventeen."

"Nearly seventeen."

"Yes. For, without being gloomy, we must be serious. As Melchior says, 'the mountains are solemn in their greatness.' Look!"

They had just turned the corner of a huge b.u.t.tress of rock, and Dale pointed up the valley to the wonderful panorama of mountain and glacier which suddenly burst upon their view. Snowy peak rising behind green alps dotted with cattle, and beyond the glittering peak other pyramids and spires of ice with cols and hollows full of unsullied snow, like huge waves suddenly frozen, with their ridges, ripples, and curves preserved.

"It is grand!" cried the boy, gazing excitedly before him at the most wondrous picture that had ever met his eyes.

"Yes," said Dale; "and it has the advantage that every step we take brings us to something grander. That is only your first peep into Nature's wilds, some of which are as awful as they are vast. There goes one of the inhabitants."

For at that moment, soaring high above the valley, a huge bird floated between them and the intensely blue sky.

"An eagle!"

"Yes; the lammergeyer--the Alpine eagle."

"But what a name!" said Saxe.

"Suitable enough," said Dale quietly. "We call our little bird of prey a sparrow-hawk. Well, this bird--lammergeyer--is the one which preys on lambs."

The eagle soared higher and higher till it was well above the perpendicular wall of rock on their left, and then glided onward toward the snow, rapidly pa.s.sing out of sight; while the trio tramped on, pa.s.sing a chalet here and another there, with its wooden shingled roof laden with great stones to keep all intact against the terrific winds which at times sweep down the valley from the ice ahead. Now their way lay down by the foaming torrent, half choked with ragged pine trunks, torn out of their birthplaces by tempests, or swept away by downfalls of snow or rock; then they panted up some zigzag, faintly marked, where it was impossible to follow the bed of the stream; and as they climbed higher fresh visions of grandeur opened out before them, though the path was so rugged that much of the view was lost in the attention that had to be given to where they placed their feet. But from time to time a halt was called, a geological hammer produced, and a piece of the rock, that had come bounding down from half a mile above them, was shifted and examined--pure limestone, now granite of some form, or hornblende, while the guide rested upon the head of his axe, and looked on.

"You English are a wonderful people," he said at last.

"Why?" said Saxe.

"A Frenchman would come up here--no, he would not: this would be too difficult and rough; he would get hot and tired, and pick his way for fear of hurting his shiny boots. But if he did he would seek two or three bright flowers to wear in his coat, he would look at the mountains, and then sit down idle."

"And the English?" said Saxe.

"Ah, yes, you English! Nothing escapes you, nor the Americans. You are always looking for something to turn into money."