The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-18

necessary The glaciers are Kept up artificially."
 But. my dear fellow, the crevassesi Those horrible crevassesl If one tum- bles into them?"
 You tumble on snow, Monsieur Tar tarin,' said Bompard calmly. At the bottom there will be porter, some body who will assist you up again, who will brush your clothes and shake off the snow The maintenance of these crevasses is the most expensive part of the companys work"
 But how do you explain those ter rible aecidents?" asked Tartarln eagerly.
 They must happen sometimes as an attraction to the English climbers, who are mad. But they are not real. The guides and the climbers always es- cape and are smuggled out of Switzer- land and maintained abroad at the ex- pense of the company. It costs money, but it pays. After one of these terrible accidents the receipts double imme- diately."
 Tartarin arose and laid one hand on the shoulder of his countryman. You do not wish me to come to harm, eh2" asked he with emotion. ''Tell me frank ly. You know my form as a moun- taineer is but middling. Do you think that I can attempt the ascent of the Jungfrau without too great rick?" T will answer for 1t with my head" replied Bompard.
 And suppose I get giddy?"
 Shut your eyes,
 If I slip?"
 Let yourself slip. You have but to trust yourself to your guide. It is just like the theatre. Everything is 'prac- ticable'"
 A few days afterward Bezuquet ap- peared in the club. breathless with ex- citement and relief. He had suffered a thousand deaths with Tartarins secret. In all the Book of Martyrs there was no martyrdom like his-to live in Tarascon, to know something and to be forbidden to divulge it!
 His agony was made worse by the wild curiosity of all the town over Tartarin's mysterious disappearance. Everybody pre- tended to know just where he was He K. He had found a treasurer. He had de- parted to form colony He had pene- trated into Central Africa to find Dr. Liv- ingstone.
 Dr. Livingstone had died long before, but Taraseonian imagination defies time and space.
 Now at last there had come a letter from the dauntless manI He was at the foot of the Jungfrau. He was about to ascend. Let us send the banner to him!' cried Bezuquet and the proud club as- sented with cheers-all except Costecalde. who was speeches. and yellow with bit- ter, defeated envy.
 Meantime, Tartarian was encamped. so to speak, facing the enemy His camp was a capital room in the hotel Every morning the first object that met his fearless eyes was the Jungfrau, a pure white mass of snow, reddened with sun- rise colors here and there.
 'Tartarin, are we ready?" the Jung frau seemed to inquire severely each morning.
 q am ready" replied the hero.
 But he did not start
 Each morning the two guides whom he had engaged arrived with their parapher- nalia Each morning he got rid of them with tip in proportion to the magnitude of his remorse. Very much delighted to do the Jungfrau in such pleasant manner, they departed gravely and with resigna- tion
 But one morning his hesitation was dis pna rti al call oF 1, I,aI1 Tarascon. It was announced to him that some gentlemen were waiting below to see him. He went down, and, behold! The brave Commandant Bravida (of the | Government Clothing factory), Excour- | banies the Devilish, whose war cry was Let's make noise!" and Pascalon, the 1 chemists assistant, who bore something l that looked like mammoth fishing rod swathed in oilcloth. It was the banner of the Alpine Club. These faithful and noble souls had ventured with 1t in per son into this far land of snowy moun- tains!
 Touched, carried out by himself, Tar tarin swore to start at once. Next day the eyes of the people-tourists, noun aineers, peasants and waiters-were de- lighted by the sight of Tartarin in his l mountaineering habiliaments, supported on one side by the brave Commandant and on the other by Excurbanies, both proud to escort him, to carry his ice ax his sack, his alpenstock, while behind them marched Pascalon with the sacred banner.
 "Is all ready?" cried Tartarin in a voice of thunder when they reached the inn at the base of the mountain, amtd a great crowd or tourists. Children, are we ready?"
 'Is the frying pan in the bag?" cried one.
 Where is the spirit lamp?" cried an- other.
 Meantime Tartarin posed for young ladies to sketch him. Then Pascalon flung the banner to the breeze, and amid the admiration of the multitude Tartarin began the ascent after a last embrace The guides started ahead with the bag l under the full belief that their employer was an expert mountaineer. But his first steps spiked him fast to the ice. He had experimented hundred times in Taraseon with those patent spikes. The treach- erous things had worked perfectly in his garden. Now, at the first danger point they betrayed him. Nailed to the ice lurching, swearing, he was reduced to cry to his guides to return and extricate him.
 They found it impossible to uproot him Those malicious patent spikes held the ice all too well. So they unfastened them and left them there, replacing them with pair of worsted boot coverings. The president of the Tarascon Alpine club then | continued his way, not without toll and