“Yes,” said he, in a low voice, “they say it is to be found—but I have never found it.”
“Have you sought much for it?”
“I have sought for it.”
The answer was not given promptly, and Lewis found, with some surprise, that the subject appeared to be distasteful to the hunter. He therefore dropped it and walked on in silence.
Walking at the time was comparatively easy, for a sharp frost had hardened the surface of the snow, and the gem-like lights of heaven enabled them to traverse valleys of ice, clamber up snow-slopes and cross crevasses without danger, except in one or two places, where the natural snow-bridges were frail and the chasms unusually wide.
At one of these crevasses they were brought to a complete standstill. It was too wide to be leaped, and no bridge was to be found. The movements of a glacier cause the continual shifting of its parts, so that, although rugged or smooth spots are always sure to be found at the same parts of the glacier each year, there is, nevertheless, annual variety in minute detail. Hence the most expert guides are sometimes puzzled as to routes.
The crevasse in question was a new one, and it was Antoine’s first ascent of Mont Blanc for that year, so that he had to explore for a passage just as if he had never been there before. The party turned to the left and marched along the edge of the chasm some distance, but no bridge could be found. The ice became more broken up, smaller crevasses intersected the large one, and at last a place was reached where the chaos of dislocation rendered further advance impossible.
“Lost your bearin’s, Antoine?” asked Captain Wopper.
“No; I have only got into difficulties,” replied the guide, with a quiet smile.
“Just so—breakers ahead. Well, I suppose you’ll ’bout ship an’ run along the coast till we find a channel.”