The guide looked at him wonderingly. He was very proficient in English, but proverbs puzzled him, and he shook his head.
“Well, then,” said Saxe, laughing, “it’s of no use to throw away time when we can use it to advantage. Do you understand that!”
“Quite,” said Melchior. “We must get a very great load of the crystals to-day, and make sure of them. It will be a splendid find, if we pick the best—grander than has ever been made here before.”
“And I discovered them,” said Saxe proudly. “Yes, herr; you discovered them,” said the guide, smiling. Saxe coloured.
“He’s laughing at me,” he said to himself, as he hurried on to overtake Dale. “I do wish I was not so conceited.”
They had a brief halt at the mouth of the black ravine, toiled up it till they reached Gros’s tethering place, and then went on.
“I have been thinking,” said Dale, as Saxe climbed on beside him, “that we ought to have swept away all those chips of stone after we opened the place.”
“You both thought no one likely to climb up here,” replied Saxe.
“Yes: we thought so, Saxe,” said Dale rather shortly; and then the toil of the climbing among and over the sharp crags put an end to their conversation, and they kept on till they were beneath the narrow crevice with the fragments of stone chipped out by Melchior lying just as they had been left.
“Now, Melchior,” cried Dale; “I will not be avaricious. We’ll have one good select load of the crystals, and then make them safe. Up with you!”