“Ah! you found it all right, then?” said the guide eagerly.
“Yes; but it is a good way off, and I only had my flask with me.”
“Good way off!” said Melchior. “Why, it is close here.”
“But we could not drink that,” cried Saxe.
“Why? It is beautiful water. I will show you.”
He took a tin from the basket as he spoke.
“Well, you can drink it if you like,” said Saxe. “I wouldn’t have minded it out of the lake; but this thick stuff—why, it’s horrid.”
“From the lake? No, not good,” said the guide. “Bad for the throat. See here!”
He took a dozen steps toward the schlucht, and passed round a huge mass of rock, behind which a pure fount of water gushed out from a rift, at whose foot Gros was drinking where the water ran down to join the river.
“Some people say that they like to travel without a guide,” said Dale quietly.