However much it seemed to roll away in every direction and to stop nowhere, a few bold spirits determined to follow its course. They forthwith found themselves plunging and diving in such deep snow that, breathless and shivering, they gave up the chase, feeling numb at heart.
From that moment the public mind was made up. No creature in mortal shape, no flesh could ever have marked the face of the snow with this labyrinthine coil. To wind up this clue of thread one must either fly like a bird, or blow like the wind, or be favoured with the malediction of God. This last explanation being of all the most clear, and the most creditable to the piety of the largest commune in the Canton du Valais, it was accepted by the municipal council and the clergy.
In the spring—the next to the great disturbance—the melting snow blotted out the dreadful spoor, the alarm it had caused and, of course, the Runner, for want of his element.
As soon as they dared, people hurried up to the Vermala rock. There they found the remains of a new and unexpected kind of habitation. The drooping branches of a mighty fir appeared to have been pinned to the ground by frost, consequent upon the piling of snow upon their extremities. Then snow had been piled up higher and higher around the tree, embedding other branches as it rose, which were cut away from the trunk, except at the top, where they stretched out in the form of a snow-covered dome. There had thus arisen a pyramid-shaped dwelling enclosed in walls of ice, for the snow had clearly been brought to transparency by the application of heat from within. And thus was explained that wonderful effluvium of light, the shimmer of which looked so sinister from afar. It is even said that some children picked among the tufts of green grass which here and there began to grow about the floor of the abandoned hut, pieces of a yellow amber-like substance which shot forth sparks bathed in a soft purple radiance, when seen by them in the darkness of their own homes.
No wonder that people spoke of Vermala in fearsome strains! What a pity the most beautiful spot in the country was haunted!
In the ensuing winters, things went from bad to worse. People ceased visiting the plateau de Crans for pleasure. Do you fancy, they said, that strangers henceforth will ever set foot upon this ground, unless it be for their sins?
ABOVE RIED, LOETSCHENTHAL.
To face p. 90.