ULFHEIM.

Impossible! The path is far too narrow. And there's no other way down.

MAIA.

[Nerving herself.] Well, well--let us face them here, then!

ULFHEIM.

Spoken like a true bear-killer, comrade!

[PROFESSOR RUBEK and IRENE appear over the edge of the precipice at the back. He has his plaid over his shoulders; she has a fur cloak thrown loosely over her white dress, and a swansdown hood over her head.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Still only half visible above the edge.] What, Maia! So we two meet once again?

MAIA.

[With a.s.sumed coolness.] At your service. Won't you come up?

[PROFESSOR RUBEK climbs right up and holds out his hand to IRENE, who also comes right to the top.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Coldly to MAIA.] So you, too, have been all night on the mountain,--as we have?

MAIA.

I have been hunting--yes. You gave me permission, you know.

ULFHEIM.

[Pointing downward.] Have you come up that path there?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

As you saw.

ULFHEIM.

And the strange lady too?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Yes, of course. [With a glance at MAIA.] Henceforth the strange lady and I do not intend our ways to part.

ULFHEIM.

Don't you know, then, that it is a deadly dangerous way you have come?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

We thought we would try it, nevertheless. For it did not seem particularly hard at first.

ULFHEIM.

No, at first nothing seems hard. But presently you may come to a tight place where you can neither get forward nor back. And then you stick fast, Professor! Mountain-fast, as we hunters call it.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Smiles and looks at him.] Am I to take these as oracular utterances, Mr. Ulfheim?

ULFHEIM.

Lord preserve me from playing the oracle! [Urgently, pointing up towards the heights.] But don't you see that the storm is upon us? Don't you hear the blasts of wind?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[Listening.] They sound like the prelude to the Resurrection Day.

ULFHEIM.

They are storm-blasts form the peaks, man! Just look how the clouds are rolling and sinking--soon they'll be all around us like a winding-sheet!

IRENE.

[With a start and shiver.] I know that sheet!