This was the one redeeming point of the situation. Whatever affected us affected both the pursued, and we remained on an equal footing. We awoke Grace, who was astonished and dismayed at the sight of the earth cased in ice. Then we had a little breakfast, and prepared to resume our dangerous pursuit.
I had heard of Alpine climbing, and, though I had never done any of it, the virtues of an alpenstock were not unknown to me. We selected slender but stout sticks from the brushwood, sharpened the ends, and, having hardened them in the fire, made our start, each thus provided. It was treacherous work, and our falls were many, but we were satisfied to escape with mere bruises, for one might easily pitch over a precipice or tumble down a long, steep-hill slope and become a mere bag of broken bones.
The sun shone in splendor, but the rays were without warmth. They were white, not yellow, and a white light is always cold. The brilliant reflection from the ice-fields forced us to keep our eyes half closed, if we did not want to be blinded.
CHAPTER VI.
AT THE HUT.
The way was still certain, a rude path coiling among the hills, from which the sheets of ice glistening like new glass, and as treacherous, forbade us to turn. Sometimes the wind would blow, and the ice-clad bushes would rattle together to the tune of castanets. Our stock of bruises grew with steadiness and certainty, but we could boast of progress.
Once the path dipped down between two peaks of unusual height. The wind was blowing rather sharply at the time, and from the white head of the higher peak on our left came a faint rumble. Crothers showed alarm and urged us to greater speed. I half guessed what he meant, and lent Grace an arm to hurry forward. The rumble grew to a roar, and we had just turned the dangerous defile when the avalanche plunged down the slope into the path we had left, setting all the echoes astir and sending up a cloud of white snow-dust. I am of opinion that several tons of valuable ice and packed hail were wasted in that drift, but as we escaped it all perhaps we have no right to complain.
We passed the spot at which I had been retaken, and thence the way was new to me. But its character did not change. The untenanted mountains seemed to roll away to the end of the world.