"It's a fact, Smith. The entire snow-field on the south shoulder of the Bec de l'Empereur let go about an hour since. Didn't you hear it?"
"I heard what I took to be thunder. Do you mean we're blocked from the outside world?"
"Completely."
"We can't dig out?"
"Who's to dig?"
"Good business!" he said, plainly delighted by the news. "How long will it last?"
"Thusis says they'll start digging from the other side, but that it may take weeks."
"Thusis knows about this?"
"She was with me at the time," said I, blushing.
He looked at me absently: "I wonder," he mused, "what Thusis thinks about the situation now."