Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-21

two abreast. Before we tackle the ice, we will
call halt for refreshments"
From that point till the glacier was reached
the climb was laboriously simple. There was
no difficulty and not the slightest risk even for
child; but the heavy gradient and the rare
fed air made it almost impossible to sustain a
conversation unless the speakers dawdled.
Helen often found herself many yards in adj
vance of the others. She simply could not help
breasting the sleeper portions of the track. She
was drawn forward by intense eagerness to
begin the real business of the day. Bower did
not seek to restrain her. He thought her high
spirits admirable, and his gaze dwelt appre-
ciatively on her graceful poise as she stopped
back at the plodders beneath. Attractive at
all times she was bewtching that morning to
man who prided himself on his athletic tastes.
She wore white knitted jersey and short
skirt. costume seemingly devised to reveal
the lines of a slender waist and supple limbs
A white tam o shanter was tied firmly over her
glossy brown hair with silk motor veil, and
the stout boots which she had surveyed so rue
fully when Bower brought them to her on the
previous evening after interviewing the village
shoemaker were by no means cumbrous in
use as her unaccustomed eyes had deemed them
Even the phlegmatic guide was stirred to gruf
appreciation when he saw her vault to large
fiat boulder in order to examine an IRON cross
that surmounted it.
"Aeh, Gonl" he grunted, that English
woman is as surefooted as a chamois."
THE curving mass of the glacier was soon
clearly visible Karls sigh of relief as he
deposited his heavy load on tablehke boulder
brought Helen back from the land OF dreams.
To this sturdy peasant the wondrous Forno
merely represented days hard work, at the
agreed sum of ten francs for carrying nearly
half hundredweight, and liberal tip If the
voyageurs were satisfied.
Sandwiches and a glass of wine, diluted with
water brought by the guide from neighbor
rill,-glacier water being used only IN the last
resort,-were delectable after steady two
hours walk The early morning meal of coffee
and a roll had lost some of its flavor when con-
sumed apparently in the middle OF the night,
and Helen was ready now for her breakfast.
While they were eating, Bower and JOSEF ba!tn
cast glances at some wisps of cloud drifting
slowly over the crests of the southern nils
Nothing was said. The guide read his patrons
wishes correctly. Unless some cause Tar more
imperative than slight mist interviewed, the
days program must not be abandoned 30
there was no lettering. The sun was almost IN
the valley, and the glacier must be crossed be-
fore the work of the nights frost was undone
When they stepped from the moraine to the
ice, Barth led, Helen followed. Bower came
next, with Karl in the rear
If it had not been for the crisp crunching
sound of the hobnails amid the loose fragments
on the surface. and the ring OF the P1ekel steel
shod butt on the solid mass beneath, Helen
might have fancied that she was walking up an
easy rock covered slope Any delusion on that
point, however, was promptly d1sPelled by
glimpse of a narrow crevasse that split the foot
of the glacier lengthwise.
CHE peered into its green depths awe
- somely. 1t resembled toothless mouth
gaping slowly open, ready enough to swallow
her, but too inert to put forth the necessary
effort And the thought reminded her of some
thing She halted and turned to Bower.
Ought we not to be roped?" she asked.
He laughed with the quiet confidence of the
expert mountaineer. Why" he cried. The
way is clear. One does not walk into crevasse
with ones eyes open.
But Stampa told me that should refuse to
advance yard on ice or difficult rock without
being roped."
"Stampa your cab driver?"
There was no reason that she could fathom
why her elderly friends name should be re-
peated with such scornful emphasis
"Ah, yes He IS that because he IS lame,
she protested But he was of the most
famous guides in Zermatt years ago"
She swung round and appealed to Barth who
was wondering why his employers were stop
ping before they had climbed twenty feet.
fare YOU from Zermatt?" she demanded
mo, frdnLein-from Pontresina. Zermatt is
a long way from here"
But you know some of the Zermatt men,
suppose? Have you ever heard of Christian
Stampa?"
Most certainly. f,dnlein My father helped
him to build the first hut on the Hornli Ridge"
"Old Stampal" chimed in Karl from be-