The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-26

with your Ice AK, monsieur ne called.
But Harry Richards could not. The
wall nearest to him was followed like an
arch and he could not so much as touch it.
And the crevasse is deep, monsieurl"
81 can't see the bottom of it."
| A pause. and then:
Il think can hold you monsieur, if you
will drop your ak and climb up the rope"
| But the rope was slippery from trailing
| in the snow, and in parts glazed with ice.
II was impossible to get such a grip on
| 1t as a man must have if he would climb
hand over hand; and this, the last way of
| safety, failed.
There was a fresh pause, while both
| the French guide and the English tourist
| looked death in the face and racked their
| brains in vain for some device by which
the imminent end might be averted.
| Everything was still; the clouds were
| blackening, the snow had begun to fall
and there was no chance that any one
would bring them help.
Then the voice of the Englishman was
heard calling from the chasm:
| "Gaspard! -
| Yes, monsieur"
Cut the rope, Gaspard."
| ~ must not, monsieur, must not"
| Is is the unwritten, but most stringent
rule of mountain elm bling. A man may cut
the rope to save friend, but not to save
himself. But Harry Richards, hanging
in the crevasse, was not bound by rules.
lsHe called again:
"Gaspardl !"
Eyes, monsieur"
| You cannot save me, Gaspard?"
81 fear not, monsieur"
| Then cut the rope l can't cut it my
self because my knife has been jerked out
of my pocket. Cut it for me-"
| Then there was silence-a silence as
Of the grave-while Gaspard Lafargue
battled with himself. He was no coward.
All the Swiss guides are brave; and he
was among the bravest of them. At Cha
mouniX and at Courmayeur there still
linger stirring stories of his pluck. He
had stood in just such peril as this was
once before. The watch he carried in his
pocket had been given to him by an En-
glish Alpinist whose life he had saved
at hideous danger to his own; he had
been covered with glory for his courage
in the columns of the Alpine Journal And
he had been brave without thought of
glory, merely because it was his duty as
mountain guide.
Now, too, he could be as brave as ever,
but for a single thought-the thought OF
Nannette, with the laughing eyes. wait
ing for him at the Mont Cervin and
wondering why he did not come. Through
the mist and the snow he seemed to see
the smile of mingled love and pride with
which she always welcomed him back
dIJ6T his D6FllOuS EXCURSIONS. again u6
= pictured her anxiety deepening int(
terror as the hour grew later and he die
not return; her sobs, bitter and incon
Solable, when the search party found thu
bodies and told her of his end.
''Never to see Nannette again Neve
to see Nannette again!''
He said the words softly over to him
self, and they unnamed him, TIL,
! thought was more than he could bear
Straining every muscle to save himself
from being drawn, even now at the las
moment, into the icy cavern, he pulled
the knife out of his pocket with his lef
hand, and opened it with his teeth.
For Nannette's sake" he murmured
as he drew the blade across the strands
The strain ceased, and he was free anC
then fresh thought began to trouble
him. The first sense of relief only lasted
for moment the sip of brandy that he
took to revive his circulation hardly pro
longed the moment, and then he was
overwhelmed with the inevitable horror
at the thing that he had done. For a
| brave man, who plays the coward, or who
merely does what the convention of his
class has settled to be cowardly, must
needs pay for it afterward.
| GaSpard remembered the case of Peter
Tangwalder. They bounded Peter out OF
Zermatt on the mere suspicion-the I'M
just suspicion as most think-of having
| Cut inc rope. Dul, Ill lis own case, DIS Gas
pard knew, it would not be suspicion,
but certainty. There were the proofs
resting at the bottom of the crevasse
where they must presently be found, but
where he could not desced to tamper
with them.
They did not love him, those Zermatt
guides, and what handle he had given
them! He pictured his Homecoming and
his reception; the question what he had
done with his herr; the inevitable ans
wer that he had left him on the mountain
the search that he himself would be ex-
pected TO direct; the awful discovery OF
the truth. How they would look at him
and scorn him! What stories they would
spread of him-stories that Nannette
perhaps would be the first to hear. Yes,
that was the worst thought of all. How
could he face Nannette again with that
shame behind him2 And how could Nan.
nette go on loving him, when this tail ran
riot in the village, and he could not deny
it. Better, surely never to see her at all
than to see her, feeling fit only for her
contempt
So his thoughts ran, as he stood half
dazed amid the binding snow.
mo, no" he said. II cannot 60 back.
do not dare go back. Better to die here,
alone, while no one Knows"
Then he crept up to the edge of the
crevasse and crouched there. He felt no
| Impulse 10 throw himself lnJO IL. A man
does not seek violent death when a
calm and peaceful death can be attained
as easily But he threw himself down
upon the very verge of the frozen gulf
where his herr lay buried, and the colo
stiffened out his limbs, and the snow
fakes fell on him and formed his canopy.
And so he lay when old Christian Sum
hereinafter, who led the search party,
stumbled on his body and saw the cut
rope aud understood.
Yet though he understood, old Christ
ian did not speak. For Christian, though
he liked not the men of Chamounix, re.
spected both the faith of the living and
the memory of the dead, and Nannette OF
the Mont Cervin never knew how Gas.
pard Lafargue had shamed himself be
fore he died.