“Ah, but I didn’t know it,” retorted the other, “and even if I had known it, the ledge of snow was immensely stronger than that on which we have just stood.”
At this point the conversation was interrupted by the guide stopping and saying that it was now necessary to tie the party together.
They had reached those higher parts of the glacier where snow frequently falls and covers, to some extent the narrower crevasses, thus, by concealing them, rendering them extremely dangerous traps. It therefore became necessary to attach the various members of the party together by means of a rope, which, passing round their waists, with a few feet between each, enabled them to rescue any one who should chance to break through.
Thus, in a string, they advanced, and had scarcely proceeded a hundred yards when a surprised “hallo!” from Captain Wopper arrested them. He had sunk up to the knees in snow. A “hallo!” of alarm instantly succeeded. He was waist deep. A stentorian yell followed:
“Ho! hallo! hi!—avast! Hold on there abaft! My legs are waublin’ in nothin’!”
His great weight had indeed nearly plunged him into a hidden crevasse, over which those who preceded him had passed in safety. If the Captain had stood alone that crevasse would certainly have been his grave, but his friends held him tight, and in a few seconds he was dragged out of danger.
“Well, well,” he said, wiping some large drops of perspiration from his brow, as he stood on the other side of the chasm, “land-lubbers talk about seafarin’ men havin’ nothin’ but a plank between them an’ death, but to my thinkin’ the rottenest plank that ever was launched is absolute safety compared to ‘a snow-wreath.’”
“Ah! Captain,” said the Professor, laughing, “you think so just now because you’re not used to it. In a few weeks you’ll hold a different opinion.”
“May be so,” replied the Captain quietly, “but it don’t feel so—heave ahead, my hearties!”
Thus encouraged the party proceeded with caution, the guide sounding the snow at each step with his long axe-handle as he moved in advance.