“I would not waste time in hunting for what we shall never discover, herr. It may be hidden in the mountains, or down some crevasse in the great glacier. Those crystals were very fine, but we left others behind in the grotto as beautiful. Why not go and get these, and take what we find at once to a place of safety?”
“At once? You forget how long a journey it is back.”
“No, herr. It is far; but once we have them we must watch, and not be robbed again like this.”
Dale stood thinking for a minute or two, Saxe watching him eagerly.
“Very good advice,” he said; “and I will follow it, but not to-day. Saxe, you must be guardian over the camp. No: we shall want your help, my lad. Put some food in your wallet, Melchior; and we will try and trace these people, for there must be more than one.”
“Yes, herr; there must be more than one,” said Melchior; and hastily making the provision required, he said that he was ready.
“Now, then,” cried Dale; “which way first?”
“One way is as good as another, herr,” replied the guide. “It is all chance. We may go upon their track; we may go right away. Shall I lead?”
“Yes,” said Dale, frowning; and the search began and lasted till darkness forced them to give up and seek their couches, tired out. For, taking the camp as a centre, they went off from it and returned, from every possible direction: not that there were many, for the vast precipices and hollows around compelled them to be select in their routes.
But it was all in vain, and from starting there was nothing that guided them in the slightest degree: for they were in a wilderness where footprints only showed upon the snow; and wherever they approached an ice field it was to find the pure white mantle unstained, and not even showing the track of a bird.