“Yes.”
“Gee, I’d like to!”
“Suppose you do this one first,” said his uncle, “and suppose you follow me, instead of racing ahead.”
Bennie fell back into line.
They had reached a long, upward-stretching snow-field now, which the doctor said was the foot of permanent snow. It never melted entirely away. It was frozen now so hard that it held them up, and the long spikes were needed, or they would have slipped. They had to jam their alpenstocks hard down to set them into it. It led upward for a quarter of a mile or so, to a spine of broken, naked lava. As they climbed this slope, they could look back into the hole of Hunt’s Cove—or they could look where the cove was. They could only see it by flashes, as it were, because whole seas of billowing white clouds were driving in over Minto Mountain, crossing above the cove, and hitting Jefferson just below them. As these clouds hit, they seemed to get thinner, slid right up the snow slope past the climbers, like white snow, and blew off into blue space over the peak.
Spider, who was watching them slide up the snow-fields, suddenly cried, “Look! Look at the summit!”
Everybody looked upward. The sun had evidently risen now, and as the clouds reached the top of the mountain they ran into its rays. The angle was just right to refract the rays down to the climbers, and the result was that the summit peak of the mountain was haloed with a beautiful rainbow. This rainbow lasted for ten minutes or more, and then the sun got too high, and it disappeared.
By the time they reached the lava spine, the clouds were thinner, and the wind had died down. They were warmed up with climbing, too, and took off their sweaters. The doctor got out the rope, and proceeded to make six loops in it, tied with knots which couldn’t slip. The loops were about fifteen or twenty feet apart. He put the first loop under his own arms; then came Bennie, then Dumplin’, then Mr. Stone, then Spider, and last of all, Norman. Everybody then covered his face with grease paint, putting it especially thick on noses and lips, and donned colored goggles.
Then the doctor spoke. “Now, boys,” he said, “from this point on you must obey orders quickly and without question. You must do exactly what I tell you to, and nothing else. There are two things to remember, above everything. Number one is this,—every second man on the rope must have his stock driven in deep and firm, with a good grip on it, when the man in front takes his stock out to make a step, and he mustn’t pull his stock out of the snow till the man ahead has made the step and driven his stock in again. If you do that, you see, fifty per cent of us will always be anchored, if anybody slips. If I find you cannot or will not obey this rule, I’ll stop the climb at once. The second thing is:—never let the rope get taut between you and the next man, so it can yank either of you, and never let it get slack enough to trip anybody. Keep it sagging, but not dragging. Now, all set!”
Uncle Billy spoke sternly. The boys knew he meant what he said, and that it was serious business ahead. They followed him carefully down the north side of the lava spine, and found themselves on a steep slope of pumice and fine conglomerate, like a mixture of gravel and wood ashes, hung at such a sharp angle that it just did stay there, and that was all. It hung at what is called the angle of repose. As Uncle Billy started out across it, to get to the snow slope beyond, Bennie noticed that every time he put his foot down, the stuff below him started slipping a little. Bennie looked down the mountain to see what would happen if they started a slide and all slipped. A hundred feet below the snow began again, and ran down for a thousand feet or more, smooth as glass, and ended at the top of a precipice! Below that, all he could see was a hole! Something went flipflop in the pit of his stomach at the sight, and he looked quickly away, just in time to see that if he didn’t step out, the rope between his uncle and himself would be pulled taut. So he had to walk ahead, on to the treacherous slope. It was exactly like running tiddly-benders on thin ice, only instead of the danger of going through into water was the danger of starting a landslide and going down with it. You could feel with every step the sickening start of the slide.