“Those are the mountains you told me about, then?” cried Saxe.
“Some of the outposts, lad. There are others far greater, miles behind those; and you are now having your first genuine look into wonderland.”
“I never thought it was like this.”
“No one can imagine how wonderful the mountains are,” said the guide solemnly. “I looked up at them as a little child, and I have been up amongst them from a boy, while I am now thirty-five; and yet they are always changing and ever new. Sometimes they are all light and sunshine, though full of hidden dangers. Sometimes they are wild and black and angry, when the wind shrieks and the lightning flashes about their shattered heads, and the thunders roar. Yes, young herr, you never thought it was half so wonderful as this. Shall we go on?”
“I was thinking,” said Dale. “I only meant to come a little way to-day, and let my companion have a glimpse of what is before him; so we will not go much farther, as it is so far back to the chalet.”
“If the herr does not mind simple fare and a bed of clean hay, we could sleep at Andregg’s to-night, and be ready for a start in the morning early.”
“The very thing,” said Dale. “How long will it take us to get from here to Andregg’s?”
“An hour,” said the guide; “so we have several good hours before us to go on up the glacier, or to cross over the valley ridge, and come back down the next.”
“Can we go up the glacier for another mile,” said Dale, “and then cross?”
“Easily.”