“His great friend.”
“Can you climb?”
“I can.”
“Are you steady?”
“Yes.”
“It is well; are you ready?”
I had not counted on this, and involuntarily I asked, in some surprise, “To-night?”
“To-night. You cannot go in the day.”
I thought of the speech I had heard: “No one goes over the mountain except at night,” and the ominous conclusion, “Who goes over the mountain comes no more.” My strange host, however, diverted my thoughts.
“A stranger cannot go except at night,” he said, gravely; and then added, “I must get back to watch over Elsket.”