“No, young herr: it would be waste of time to try. Trust to me; perhaps I can take you to a better grotto yet, and if we do find one, we will live in it till bit by bit the crystals are removed and placed in safety.”
“We shall not find such another spot,” said Dale sadly.
“The mountains are wonderful and vast, herr. There is the Blitzenhorn yet to try.”
“Yes, to try,” said Dale sadly. “Oh, but it is maddening just as success had attended us!” and he relapsed into gloomy silence, as Melchior went about the grotto holding the lanthorn to its glittering ceiling, the light flashing from hundreds of crystals; but every one worth taking as a specimen had been removed, and a great rusty hammer with which they had been broken off lay before them, forgotten in their hurry by those who had been there.
Chapter Thirty Four.
Growing Resigned.
A month had glided by, during which Dale and Saxe had explored valleys, traced glaciers to their sources, and made plenty of mountain ascents; but though they penetrated into the wildest regions of the higher alps, and encountered storm and wind sufficient to tear them from the giddy crags to which they climbed, no more crystals rewarded their efforts, no curiously half-hidden rift fringed with sparkling points invited them to break a way in.
“Why not try the Blitzenhorn, herr?” Melchior would say: “the young herr is getting to be a clever, sure-footed mountaineer now, and I have hopes of our being successful there.”