“Ay, Caspar,” rejoined Karl, “and where should we be then? Shut up too, I fear.”
“True, brother, I did not think of that. What a terrible thing it would be to be imprisoned between these black cliffs! It would, I declare.”
The words had scarce issued from Caspar’s lip, when a crash was heard like the first bursting of a thunderclap, and then a deafening roar echoed up the ravine, mingled with louder peals, as though the eternal mountains were being rent asunder!
The noise reverberated from the black cliffs; eagles, that had been perched upon the rocks, rose screaming into the air; beasts of prey howled from their lurking-places; and the hitherto silent valley was all at once filled with hideous noises, as though it were the doom of the world!
Chapter Twenty Two.
The Glacier Slide.
“An avalanche!” cried Karl Linden, as the first crash fell upon his ear; but on turning, he saw his mistake.
“No,” he continued, with a look of terror, “it is not an avalanche! My God! my God! the glacier is in motion!”