ntiment that
something will happen. Come home now, and we can try for the buck
to-morrow."

But the old mountaineer had in the mean time become self-possessed
again, and again raised his gun to fire. Just as he pulled the trigger,
however, his foot slipped, and with an exclamation of horror, Walter saw
him carried rapidly toward the rift in the ice, and suddenly disappear.
With the recoil of the gun the hunter had lost his balance on the
slippery ice, and at the same moment that his shot struck the chamois,
he was hurled into the "rift."

"Father! father! father!" screamed Walter, throwing himself on the ice,
horror-stricken, and peering wildly down the crevasse. "Father, speak!"

All was silent. Only a slight trickling, as if from some subterranean
stream, reached his ear.

For several minutes the youth lay at the edge of the chasm, paralyzed
with terror. When he recovered his consciousness, a feeling of alarm and
distress overwhelmed him. He wept, and wrung his hands bitterly.

"Father!" he cried again into the abyss that yawned beneath
him--"father, speak to me, for God's sake!"

A sudden thrill passed through his frame as a low murmur came up from
the icy grave. He strained his ears to listen to the broken words. "I am
alive, Watty," was the reply of the unfortunate man; "but my ankle is
out of joint, and one of my arms broken. I shall never see the light of
day again."

A cry of mingled joy and agony burst from Walter's lips.

"Don't be afraid, father," he exclaimed. "You shall be rescued, with
God's help. Have you got your bag with you?"

"Yes, but my bottle is broken."

"Well, then, take mine. I'll lower it down with a cord. Have you got
it?"

"Yes," was feebly answered. "I can hold out now for a while, unless the
cold strikes me."

"Courage, father, till I run down to the village, and get the neighbors
and shepherds to come with ropes and poles. Try to hold out for a couple
of hours, and with the help of God you shall be saved."

"Ay, ay, dear boy," was the faint reply; "I will try to be patient till
you come back." And with a godspeed Walter hurried off to rouse the
neighbors to the rescue.

It was a dangerous journey that the brave boy undertook for his father's
rescue; but courage, and the agility which is acquired by those who are
accustomed to the mountains from childhood, enabled him to reach the
valley in a wonderfully short time. Pale as death, with hands bleeding,
and clothes torn to