would follow him with the opera-glasses and wave him farewell when he
reached the Kulm. He shook our hands unwillingly, and turned up the
little path, looking handsomer than ever. It led ascending through a
fir-wood to the rock-strewn hillside.

Once, a quarter of an hour later, we caught a glimpse of him near a
sharp turn in the road; after that we waited in vain, with our eyes
fixed on the Kulm; not a sign could we discern of him. At last I grew
anxious. 'He ought to be there,' I cried, fuming.

'He ought,' Elsie answered.

I swept the slopes with the opera-glasses. Anxiety and interest in him
quickened my senses, I suppose. 'Look here, Elsie,' I burst out at last.
'Just take this glass and have a glance at those birds, down the crag
below the Kulm. Don't they seem to be circling and behaving most oddly?'

Elsie gazed where I bid her. 'They're wheeling round and round,' she
answered, after a minute; 'and they certainly _do_ look as if they were
screaming.'

'They seem to be frightened,' I suggested.

'It looks like it, Brownie,'

'Then he's fallen over a precipice!' I cried, rising up; 'and he's lying
there on a ledge by their nest. Elsie, we must go to him!'

She clasped her hands and looked terrified. 'Oh, Brownie, how dreadful!'
she exclaimed. Her face was deadly white. Mine burned like fire.

'Not a moment to lose!' I said, holding my breath. 'Get out the rope and
let us run to him!'

'Don't you think,' Elsie suggested, 'we had better hurry down on our
cycles to Lungern and call some men from the village to help us? We are
two girls, and alone. What can we do to aid him?'

'No,' I answered, promptly, 'that won't do. It would only lose time--and
time may be precious. You and I must go; I'll send Ursula off to bring
up guides from the village.'

Fortunately, we had a good long coil of new rope in the house, which
Mrs. Evelegh had provided in case of accident. I slipped it on my arm,
and set out on foot; for the path was by far too rough for cycles. I was
sorry afterwards that I had not taken Ursula, and sent Elsie to Lungern
to rouse the men; for she found the climbing hard, and I had difficulty
at times in dragging her up the steep and stony pathway, almost a
watercourse. However, we persisted in the direction of the Kulm,
tracking Harold by his footprints; for he wore mountain boots with
sharp-headed nails, which made dints in the moist soil, and scratched
the smooth surface of the rock where he tro