The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

  IN DESPERATION.

  The faint grey dawn lit up the canvas of the tent and faintly showed thefigure of Dale fast asleep, with his head close to the place where thecrystals had been laid and covered over with a rug.

  Melchior had crept out of the tent without making sound loud enough toawaken them; and it was apparent now that he was busy preparing themorning meal.

  Saxe did not want to get up for a few minutes, and he lay thinking aboutthe beautiful crystals, and of how he would break off a few of thesmaller ones to bring away in his pockets to keep as curiosities forhome. Then he recalled the weight of the one he had carried overnight,and thought how strong Melchior must be, or else how patient andenduring. Finally, he determined to get up and go and talk to the guideabout their work for the coming day--a task which had lost its zest nowthat some of the crystals had been found.

  But his moving roused Dale, who started up.

  "Throw open the tent door, my boy, and let's have some fresh air. Iwant to have a look, too," he cried, "at our treasures."

  Saxe obeyed; and he was in the act of looping back the canvas, when Daleuttered an angry cry.

  "Gone!--stolen!" he cried. "That man must have gone off with them onthe mule."

  "Did the herr call?" said Melchior, hurrying up.

  "You here, Melchior?" stammered Dale in his surprise. "But yes. Look!The crystals! We laid them there. Do you know where they are gone?"

  "No, herr. But are you sure?"

  "Sure, man! Yes, and--ah! Look at that!" he continued, pointing at thetent wall. "A slit has been cut in it with a knife."

  Melchior rushed outside and examined the slit.

  "Yes," he said, shaking his head; "cut with a sharp knife. It must havebeen whilst we slept."

  "And by some one who must have been watching our movements."

  "There!" cried Saxe excitedly. "I knew it. I felt sure that we werebeing watched."

  "Whoever it is cannot have gone far," said Dale sternly. "It is thesame party that stole the crystal before. Now, Melchior, which way arethey likely to have gone?--of course back toward the valley!"

  Melchior shook his head.

  "But they must. There is no other road, you say."

  "Oh yes, herr: there are ways for good climbers."

  "But a good climber cannot get up and down dangerous places with half ahundredweight of stones on his back, man."

  "No, herr. They would not carry the stones very far: they would hidethem."

  "And go back without them!"

  "No, herr. If the object of watching us is to get the crystals, theywill still be hiding to see if we find more."

  "Yes, you may be right," said Dale, after a few moments' thought."Here, let's have a good look round in different directions."

  Melchior looked at him half pityingly.

  "Which!" he said at last. "Has the herr thought how impossible it wouldbe to hunt good climbers down in these wilds! Look!" he continued,waving his hand round; "the great wilderness is everywhere, and thereare thousands of places where men could hide."

  "Yes, I know all that," cried Dale impatiently; "but I am not going tosit down quietly and be robbed like this of the specimens I have workedso hard to get. What do you say, Saxe!"

  "Get 'em back at any cost. I think they are Italian brigands from theother side who have done it."

  "No, herr," said Melchior. "It is the work of some of our people, whoare greedy and jealous. There are some who would sooner work hard for amonth to find an opportunity to steal a few francs than work honestlyfor a week to earn double. Fortunately they are very few."

  "Then you would give up and not search for them!" said Dale angrily.

  "I would search for them, herr; but it would end in failure. This mustbe done by men who know these high mountains as well as I do. Why, if Iwished to hide here, there are places I could get to where I shouldnever be found."

  "But the hiding people want food!"

  "Yes, herr," said the guide drily; "and they have got it. A great dealof what I brought up with Gros has gone. I thought the young herr herehad taken some of it; but I see now."

  "Then, what would you do?"

  "I would not waste time in hunting for what we shall never discover,herr. It may be hidden in the mountains, or down some crevasse in thegreat glacier. Those crystals were very fine, but we left others behindin the grotto as beautiful. Why not go and get these, and take what wefind at once to a place of safety?"

  "At once? You forget how long a journey it is back."

  "No, herr. It is far; but once we have them we must watch, and not berobbed again like this."

  Dale stood thinking for a minute or two, Saxe watching him eagerly.

  "Very good advice," he said; "and I will follow it, but not to-day.Saxe, you must be guardian over the camp. No: we shall want your help,my lad. Put some food in your wallet, Melchior; and we will try andtrace these people, for there must be more than one."

  "Yes, herr; there must be more than one," said Melchior; and hastilymaking the provision required, he said that he was ready.

  "Now, then," cried Dale; "which way first?"

  "One way is as good as another, herr," replied the guide. "It is allchance. We may go upon their track; we may go right away. Shall Ilead?"

  "Yes," said Dale, frowning; and the search began and lasted tilldarkness forced them to give up and seek their couches, tired out. For,taking the camp as a centre, they went off from it and returned, fromevery possible direction: not that there were many, for the vastprecipices and hollows around compelled them to be select in theirroutes.

  But it was all in vain, and from starting there was nothing that guidedthem in the slightest degree: for they were in a wilderness wherefootprints only showed upon the snow; and wherever they approached anice field it was to find the pure white mantle unstained, and not evenshowing the track of a bird.

  "Will the herr continue the search to-morrow, or go to the grotto?" saidMelchior, as they lay down to sleep.

  "Continue the search," said Dale sternly; and the next day and the nextthey toiled on, going farther and farther into the mountains, but therewas no other result than weariness.

  "It's enough to make one believe in Melchior's goblins," said Dalepetulantly, "all those beautiful crystals to have been spirited awaylike that. But never mind: we shall find them to-morrow, I feel sure."

  But when to-morrow came Dale did not feel so sure; and, altering hismind, to Saxe's great delight, they took the mule and started for thegrotto once again.

  Dale went first, and the mule followed, Saxe walking behind withMelchior, until they reached the black ravine.

  "I am glad," the boy said, as they trudged along over the rock and ice."It was all waste of time trying to catch those fellows."

  "Yes, herr--quite."

  "Have you no idea as to whom it could be, Melk?"

  "No, herr, not the least. Mr Dale must have talked about his journeyto some one as you came, and clever people have been let to watch you."

  "Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk, even if it is Swiss milk,"said Saxe, laughing.

  The guide looked at him wonderingly. He was very proficient in English,but proverbs puzzled him, and he shook his head.

  "Well, then," said Saxe, laughing, "it's of no use to throw away timewhen we can use it to advantage. Do you understand that!"

  "Quite," said Melchior. "We must get a very great load of the crystalsto-day, and make sure of them. It will be a splendid find, if we pickthe best--grander than has ever been made here before."

  "And I discovered them," said Saxe proudly. "Yes, herr; you discoveredthem," said the guide, smiling. Saxe coloured.

  "He's laughing at me," he said to himself, as he hurried on to overtakeDale. "I do wish I was not so conceited."

  They had a brief halt at the mouth of the black ravine, toiled up ittill they reached Gros's tethering place, and then went on.


  "I have been thinking," said Dale, as Saxe climbed on beside him, "thatwe ought to have swept away all those chips of stone after we opened theplace."

  "You both thought no one likely to climb up here," replied Saxe.

  "Yes: we thought so, Saxe," said Dale rather shortly; and then the toilof the climbing among and over the sharp crags put an end to theirconversation, and they kept on till they were beneath the narrow crevicewith the fragments of stone chipped out by Melchior lying just as theyhad been left.

  "Now, Melchior," cried Dale; "I will not be avaricious. We'll have onegood select load of the crystals, and then make them safe. Up withyou!"

  Melchior climbed up, fastened the rope to the spike, and then creptinside the grotto with the lanthorn attached to his waist.

  "Looks just like a bear going into his den," said Saxe, laughing, as thehind quarters of the guide disappeared.

  "Yes. Up with you, and play bear too, or monkey," said Dale, laughing;and with the help of the rope the boy soon reached the opening andcrawled in.

  Dale followed, and blocked out the light just as Melchior had creptfarther in, and was busy opening the lanthorn and striking a match.

  "One moment, Melchior," said Dale: "here's a piece of blue light,--let'sburn that."

  But just as he spoke the match flashed into light, and Melchior droppedit; they heard him scratching at his box, and directly after he struckabout half a dozen together, and separated them, so that they burnedbrightly, holding them high up above his head before taking one to lightthe wick of the lanthorn.

  At the first flash out of the matches Saxe sprang back in horror, andDale uttered a groan of disappointment. Then there was a dead silence,during which the matches blazed down close to the guide's fingers, andwere allowed to fall, while the lanthorn burned more brightly, showingthe guide's wrinkled countenance, full of disappointment and despair.

  "It's horrible!" cried Saxe wildly. "Oh, if I only knew!"

  "Yes, boy: if you only knew," said Dale.

  "We must find them."

  "No, young herr: it would be waste of time to try. Trust to me; perhapsI can take you to a better grotto yet, and if we do find one, we willlive in it till bit by bit the crystals are removed and placed insafety."

  "We shall not find such another spot," said Dale sadly.

  "The mountains are wonderful and vast, herr. There is the Blitzenhornyet to try."

  "Yes, to try," said Dale sadly. "Oh, but it is maddening just assuccess had attended us!" and he relapsed into gloomy silence, asMelchior went about the grotto holding the lanthorn to its glitteringceiling, the light flashing from hundreds of crystals; but every oneworth taking as a specimen had been removed, and a great rusty hammerwith which they had been broken off lay before them, forgotten in theirhurry by those who had been there.