Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-04-25
TWO GLACIER ACCIDENTS.
BY FRANCIS GRIBBLE.

Richmond Hill that Herbert Meredith
first met Edith Curzon. Finding he liked
her better than the other girls he knew,
he fnttered about her sufficiently to at
tract attention In due course there fol-
lowed other dances, and sundry river
picnics and tennis parties, at which the
futtering continued, until Herbert found,
or fanced, that his wings were singed.
Turning the situation over in mis- mind,
he came to the conclusion that he was in
love. On this hypothesis he dutifully
proposed marriage, and was accepted.
;. could haruly have ended happily in
any case, even if 40 had ended Conven-
tionally. Edith was pretty and every
thing that is attractive to the average
young man, but she was not-though
at first neither of them knew 1.-THE one
woman in the world who could keep Her
bert's love as we'll as win it. Herbert
had once or twice suspected that in the
course of three months cement.
He was quite sure of it when Blanche
Marsden came into his story and com
picated it.
Blanche was Edith's cousin, and she
came, innocent of any tragic purpose,
| to stay with Edith at the Laurels She
| rame, unfortunately, at the psycholog
| zeal moment when Herbert was lust be-
ginning to be embarrassed by the dis
| sovery that he was less passionately at
cached to Edith than he ought to be.
! fe found presently, to his further emf
| barrassment, that Blanche was all the
world to him, and that he loved Edith
only "as Il sister'-or perhaps not quite
DO we'll And Blanche loved Herbert.
1t is u perfectly commonplace situa-
lion, but none the less tragic upon that
account. 1t has only three possible so
Iutions disloyalty, self sacrifice, or sui
ride
Herbert, after many meditations and
solil0quics. decided ON the middle course.
Edith loved him and would be heart
broken if he left her. Edith was poor
and would have to earn her living as
goyerness, or typewriter, or some
| thing equally unpleasant, ii the engage
y emit were broken of. His word was
| pledged to Edith. Therefore he would
marry Edith
And the end was an accident on the
Corner Glacier in the Zermatt valley.
They were all staying at the little
hotel that Alexander Seller built on the
Rifelberg, $500 feet above the level of
the sea.
Blanche, of course, had no business to
be there She knew that Herbert was
expected and it was very wrong OF her
to come. But her aunt. Mrs Maitland.
had invited her, and the invitation was
very pressing, and she-well, she came.
They started alone, and Herbert came
to Join them when the law courts rose.
Both ladies climbed well, though not
like gymnasts or Alpinists. After visit
ing some of the more accessible points
they finally insisted on spending day
on the higher parts of the Corner glacier.
THE lower part" Edith said, is too
ridiculously easy. Take us up above
the Seracs, where the snow is, and never
mind about guide
Ilernert, believing himself, not without
some reason, to be as good as any guide
promised readily. and they agreed to
start al daybreak, which they did
Herbert had made the rope fast round
the waists of his two companions, and
then round his own.
Then they started. He lod the way
himself sounding the snow in front of
him with his ice AK, to make sure that
it would bear his weight Edith fol-
lowed at distance of six or seven
yards; Blanche was the same distance
behind Edith Thus, it one fell into a
creVassc the other two would be able to
hold up the weight.
Their path led them across what is
doubtless the widest crevasse in all the
Xermatt district.
| ike tbp ,oaf ,t-,1 ,>,r,,.s.l .,,,.1 -,
| cealed 10y bridge of fresh fallen snow.
Herbert's ice-aN detected no sign of hol-
lowness. Therefore, by all the laws of
ice craft it should bear him. 1t did so,
but he was heavy man, and his weight
weakened and looseued il. Edith fol
| lowed. loosening it still further. Then,
suddenly, there was shrek of terror.
and n heavy thud.
! What had happened was almost the
worst thing that could have happened.
Almost before Edith had crossed the
bridge. il had given way under Blanche's
weight. Edith lay helpless on the side
| Of the abyss, with her head inst drawn
over the edge. Blanche was dangling Mt
| the end of the rome some six or seven
yards below her, The weight Of the two
rested upon Herbert. He pulled with MI
/ 81. S''tt'@Nhs u"l touiu not move lhenl.
blanche had dropped her ice pick when
she fell and was helpless. Neither could
she climb mp the rope because the wall
OF the crevasse overhung her
She tried and failed Few men could
have done such a thing; certainly not
one woman in ten thousand.
II was the last chance. Herbert
lodelled. in the hope that there might
be some other party on the glacier with.
in earsnot, though out of sight
len minutes passed. only broken by
an occasional desperate and mavailinp
shout for help. The pain across his chest
was terrible lie had lost another inch
or two OF ground and he felt that hi.
strength must soon fail him altogether.
Still he stood firm, hoping against hope.