“I—I don’t feel as if I can eat any breakfast this morning,” said Saxe drearily.
“Nonsense, boy! Why, even if it were as you have imagined, what would it matter? We should only have to take extra precautions: set a watch, perhaps, as the sailors do. We shall have Melchior back soon, and we shall hear what he has to say. There, go on—eat. You can’t work without. We’ve found one crystal cave, and that encourages us to find more. You can’t help me if you starve yourself; and I want to get you up to the top of one of the highest mountains about here yet.”
The result was that Saxe made a very hearty breakfast; for after the first mouthful or two, he forgot his mental troubles, and obeyed his companion with all his might.
The meal ended, the wallet was stored with all they would require for the day; and as Saxe arranged the contents, he looked up at his companion.
“What is it?—something else gone?”
“No,” replied Saxe: “I mean yes—gone. There will be scarcely anything left to eat for tea when we come back, unless Melchior is here.”
“Ah, yes, Melchior,” said Dale, taking out his pocketbook and writing down in German—
“Gone up the right side of the glacier. Look out for cross chipped in the ice opposite a black ravine.”
“There,” he said, tearing out the leaf, “I’ll put this on the big stone by the tent door, and another stone upon it to keep it down.”
He suited the action to the word; and soon after, fully equipped for their little journey, the pair started, descended in due time to the glacier, where the tiny streams were trickling fast in the hot sun, and then toiled on and on through the never-wearying scenery, past the ends of the two great, now very familiar, crevasses, and sat down at last to a light lunch off the entrance to the black ravine.