des?"

He laughed pleasantly. "One does not attempt the Cervin or the
Jungfrau without the best men, and in my time there were not twenty,
all told. I had a long talk with our present guide last night, and
found I had used many a track he had only seen from the valley."

"Then----"

A loud toot on a cowhorn close at hand interrupted her. The artist was
a small boy. He appeared to be waiting expectantly on a hillock for
someone who came not.

"Is that a signal?" she asked.

"Yes. He is a _gaumer_, or cowherd,--another word for your Alpine
vocabulary,--the burgher whose cattle he will drive to the pasture has
probably arranged to meet him here."

Bower was always an interesting and well informed companion. Launched
now into a congenial topic, he gave Helen a thoroughly entertaining
lecture on the customs of a Swiss commune. He pointed out the
successive tiers of pastures, told her their names and seasons of use,
and even hummed some verses of the cow songs, or _Kuh-reihen_, which
the men sing to the cattle, addressing each animal by name.

An hour passed pleasantly in this manner. Their guide, a man named
Josef Barth, and the porter, who answered to "Karl," awaited them at
the milk chalet by the side of Lake Cavloccio. Bower, evidently
accustomed to the leadership of expeditions of this sort, tested their
ice axes and examined the ropes slung to Barth's rucksack.

"The Forno is a glacier _de luxe_," he explained to Helen; "but it is
always advisable to make sure that your appliances are in good order.
That _pickel_ you are carrying was made by the best blacksmith in
Grindelwald, and you can depend on its soundness; but these men are so
familiar with their surroundings that they often provide themselves
with frayed ropes and damaged axes."

"In addition to my boots, therefore, I am indebted to you for a
special brand of ice ax," she cried.

"Your gratitude now is as nothing to the ecstasy you will display when
Karl unpacks his load," he answered lightly. "Now, Miss Wynton, _en
route_! You know the path to the glacier already, don't you?"

"I have been to its foot twice."

"Then you go in front. There is no room to walk two abreast. Before we
tackle the ice we will call a 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 a
child; but the heavy gradient and the rarefied air made it almost
imposs