The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-18


 of these terrible accidents the re- 1 ceipts double immediately , Tartarin arose and laid one han, on the shoulder of his countryman You do not wish me to come to harm } ehF asked he with emotion. "Tel me frankly. You know my form al
 mountaineer is but middline, D you think that I can attempt the as
 cent of the Jungfrau without tot great risk" l T win answer for 1t with my h head,
 replied Bompard.
 And suppose get giddyT'
 Shut your eyes"
 Let yourself slip. You have but tc
 trust yourself to your guide 1t Ia
 'practicable.'"
 few days afterward Bezuuuent ap-
 peared in the club, breathlsss with ex-
 citement and relief. He had suffered
 secret In all the Book of Martyrs there was no maryrdom like his--to
 i've In Tarascon, to know something and to be forbidden, to divulge 1t!
 His agony was made worse by the
 Wild curiosity of all the town over Tartarin's mysterious disappearance Everybody pretended to know just come Trappist monk. He had found a treasure. He had departed to form a colony. He had penetrated into Gen. tral Africa to find pr. Livingstone.
 pr. Livingstone had died long be- fore, but Tarasconian imagination de- fies 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 l about to ascend. Let us send the banner to himg' cried Bezuquent, and the proud club assented with cheers all except Costecalde. who was speech less and yellow with bitter. defeated envy.
 Meantime. Tartarin 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 Jung l frau, pure white mass of snow, red dened with sunrise colors here and l there.
 "Tartarin. are we ready?" the Jung frau seemed to Inquire severely each | morning.
 'T am ready" replied the hero. But he did not start.
 Each morning the two guides whom he had engaged arrived with their paraphernallia, Each morning he got rid of them with a tip in proportion to the magnitude of his remorse. Very much delighted to do the Jung frau in such pleasant manner, they de- parted gravely and with resignation.
 But one morning his hesitation was dispelled by the martial call of his be- loved Tarascon. It was announced to him that some gentleman were wait ing below to see him. He went down. and. beholdl The brave Commandant Bravida (of the Government clothing factoTy), Excourbanies the Devilish. whose war cry was Let's make e noiset' and Pasoalon, the chenistla- a a n Wuhn looked like a mammoth fishing rod swathed in oilcloth. It was the ban ner of the Alpine Club. These faith full and noble souls had ventured with 1t in person into this far land of snowy mountains!
 Touched. carried out by himself Tar tarin swore to start at once. Next day the eyes of the people-tourists, noun taineers, peasants and waiters-were delighted by the sight of Tartarin in his mountaineering habilaLients, sup ported on one side by the brave Com mandant and on the other be EAr courbanies. both proud to escort him. to carry his ice ax, his sack, his alpen- stock, while behind them marched Pes calon with the sacred banner.
 'Ib all erady?" cried Tartarin in A voice of thunder when they reached the inn at the. base of the mountain. amid great crowd of tourists. "Chil- dren. are we ready?"
 ''Is the frying pan in the bag?"
 where is the spirit lamp?" cried another.
 Meantime Tartarin posed for young ladies to sketch him. Then Pascalon | flung the banner to the breeze, and | amid the admiration Of the multitude Tartartn began the ascent after a last | en1b race.
 The guides started ahead with the bag under the full belief that their employer was an expert mountaIneer. But his first steps spiked him fast to the ice. He had experimented a hun dred times in Tarascon with those patent spikes. The treacherous things had worked perfectly in his garden. Now. at the first danger point. they be- trayed him. Nailed to the ice. lurch- Ing, swearing, he was reduced to cry to his guides to return and extricate aim.
 They found 1t impossiblb to up-root him. Those malicious patent spikes held the Ice all too well. So they un- fastened them and left them there, re- placing them with a pair of worsted boot coverings. The president of the rarascon Alpine Club then continued lis way, not without toll and fatigue.
 His alpenstock displayed a torturing facility for knocking against his legs. The ice ax slid away from him in- 'tead of supporting him. The swell ings of the glacier increased. Cre- 'asses appeared, bottomless pits Into which pieces of ice rolled to inhnity. Ie fell again and again. Several times le slid into the smaller cracks. Once le went into a green chasm up to his waist and was prevented from drop 'ing further only by his broad shoul- lers. Seeing him so utterly unskillful and It the same time so undismayed- aughing, singing, gesticulating, just IS he had been doing before the start the guides began to suspect that he vas drunk. They could not account for the clumsiness of this amous president of the Tarascon AL , ine Club. Seizing him under the arms 7 espectfully, they tried to awaken his 7 enses to the dangers of the route. , hey pointed at the crevasses, the Ice innacles and the avalanches. The worthy TarasconIan laughed. { An get out with your avalanchesm huckled he, and winked at them to f how them that he was in the secret 8 well as they. The guides ended by joining the fun. arried away by the Tarasconian mad ess. They yodied and laughed. and f nus they reached the shelter hut { 7here ley were to stay overnight I They started again before dawn. his time the guides produced ropes, ( An. go along with your ropes! said | he sophisticated Tartarin ''Verv z 'ell, then' If 1t amuses you, be 1t [ ow f