Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1873-10-28

registered. They had gone Oh
hours before, with guides, to ascend
Mount Blanc.
Now, par Dieu, I will not climb
Mount Blanc after them. / would
do it for Charlie West, if / knew it
were he, but not for Leslie Roberts.
/ have made the ascent of Mount
Blanc, and of all the stupid, weari-
some, distressing, useless, desolate
performances-no, / will not do it
again. Leslie Roberts must come
down some time. I'll wait.
So l waited. | walked to the
source Of the Arve river, and, gen.
orally speaking, "lounged round" I"
And at night Chamounix was all
astir and ahame with the news of
an accident that had happened on
Mount Blanc. Three had gone up
and two guides; two of the tour
lists and one of the guides had fall
en- down a precipice and been kill
ed. The tourists were two Span
iards or Mexicans and one English
man. My first thought was, "Pray
God that, after all, Leslie Roberts
may prove not to be Charlie West"
Then again came news more ma
ture and accurate. One Spaniard
was certainly killed, and one guide.
The second Spaniard Tor Mexican)
was injured. The other guide and
the Englishman were safe. "Then,"
I thought, spray Heaven that Les
lie Roberts may prove to be Charlie
West"
Ijoined party who were going
up to help in recovering the
bodies. Much as | now dislike Al
pine climbing, am not an inexpert
cragsman-and in any case my
mind would not allow me to remain
below. But before we reached the
spot the two bodies had been rails
ed from their icy graves by some Of
those who had gone thither from
Chamounix on the first news of the
calamity. And in the chill dawn
a ghastly cleft of the awful Alps
I saw a figure bending over corpse
and the figure was that of my
old friend Charlie West.
evil you descend, Mr.. Robertsa'
) said a guide, in tone of commits
, Grafton.
at matters little where I gc
now," Charlie answered. al have
lest my best friend on earth"
"No, no, Charlie West" / ex-
claimed lin English-his words were
in French.) "You have deareI
friends, and I have come to bring
you to them"
The rest of my story is not long
to tell. brought Charlie West to
Lausanne. On our way thither he
told Inc the history of the past two
years. When he left Europe he
went to Mexico, and tried many
ways to make fortune there, hav-
ing still some faint romantic hope
of one day returning to claim Miss
Kendall. He failed in all, and took
to teaching French, German and
English. One family of Spanish
Mexicans employed him, and was
more than merely kind to him.
There were two sons in this family,
and with the elder Of these he
formed a warm and sincere friend
ship. The two sons were sent to
travel to Europe, and Charlie re-
ceived q liberal invitation to go with
them as tutor, interpreter and COM
panion. Poor fellow His finan-
ces would not in any case have al
lowed him to regard such a chance
with Indifference; but he stipulat-
ed that he was not to visit England.
His friends and patrons must travel
that country without him--he could
not endure to look on the old, dear,
lost scenes again-and he frankly
told his friends the reason why, and
they respected his emotions and his
renunciation.
ought to say that the moment
he left England Charlie dropped al
together the name which seemed to
him to be darkened by irretrieve-
able disgrace, and called himself
Leslie Roberts, pseudonym he
compounded for himself, on the ran
dom principle of adopting the first
two proper names which presented
themselves on the page of a news.
paper.
So they sailed from Vera Cruz
and came to st. Nazaire, and stud
led Paris, and idled along the
Rhine, and entered Switzerland