The stop was of short duration, and in twenty minutes the climbing began.
It had occurred to Captain Gould to go round the peak, to avoid a tiring climb. But its base was seen to be impassable, and, after all, the height was not great.
At the outset the foot found hold upon a soil where scanty plants were growing, clumps of stone-crops to which the fingers could cling.
Half an hour sufficed to bring them half-way up the peak. Then Fritz, who was in front, let a cry of surprise escape him.
All stopped, looking at him.
“What is that, up there?” he said, pointing to the extreme top of the cone.
A stick was standing upright there, a stick five or six feet long, fixed between the highest rocks.
“Can it be a branch of a tree, with all the leaves stripped off?” said Frank.
“No; that is not a branch,” Captain Gould declared.
“It is a stick—a walking-stick!” Fritz declared. “A stick which has been set up there.”