He came along muttering many things. He was understood to say that some people had no more enthusiasm than a slug; that the British nation at large was utterly wanting in verve and spirituality; that in our poor company his intellect roamed desolate and companionless. But we regarded him not, striding upward till we reached the point where the cañon narrowed and darkened over us.
This defile continued for about a quarter of a mile, and along it still ran the curious effect as of a cobbled road. At the end of the neck we could see that the valley divided, one half continuing up the pass, the other striking away sharply to the right.
We reached the sharp spur of the mountain that hid the second valley from our sight. We rounded the corner, all five of us abreast. As a single man we stopped in our surprise.
Almost to our feet a mighty glacier rolled, clear, clean, and blue as the firmament, still and cold as the shadow of death. A gasp went up simultaneously from each throat as we stepped so swiftly and unknowingly into the presence of this mighty ice-river, standing out in such lonely whiteness and solemnity; for an appreciable moment no one spoke.
Then came a shrill yell from our irrepressible friend. He pointed up the side of the new valley, his little eyes fairly blazing in their sockets.
“There, there!” he howled, “as I told you, it is there. Name of all the names, let us climb,” and he scrabbled at the smooth rock face that fenced the entrance of the far cañon, plucking at it like a caged squirrel.
We followed the direction of his forefinger, and I will confess that my first feeling was one of desperate annoyance, for on the edge of the ice, standing out yellow-gray against the blue crevices, was something uncommonly like the wall of a ruined or half-finished building. Nothing could explain this away, and it seemed possible that Lessaution might have some ground for his fancies. Any wonder or interest I might have felt in this discovery was swallowed by the irritation I felt in remembering what scorn I had always thrown upon Gerry’s and Lessaution’s imaginings, which now might well prove to be borne out by facts. I gaped upon the phenomenon therefore distrustfully, as if it might be, perchance, a put-up hoax.
The Frenchman was still extended upon the ice-planed rocks, wriggling like a worm, but advancing not at all. Gerry seized one of his outstretched legs and gave him a lusty shove. The ungrateful little wretch never so much as offered him thanks or a tug in return. He gathered himself up, and tore across the confusion of the ice-milled stones like a lapwing.
Parsons respectfully offered a back, as at leap-frog. We took advantage of it to scale the tiny precipice, and follow in the savant’s tracks. The slow-blooded Mr. Parsons, after eyeing the unaided ascent that would be his if he pursued us, sat himself down beside the baggage, and lit his pipe with solemn content. The rest of us joined Lessaution beside the building, or whatever it might be.
It was supposedly the rear of a house, and ended with great abruptness where the glacier began. There was no roof, merely three stone walls built of excessively solid blocks—not natural, but evidently quarried—and at the glacier side it broke off suddenly, as if beaten down by some sudden shock. Inside the walls was nothing but a little heap of dust.