ater
roared and churned itself into foam, passed this in safety, and once
more they crept on, thinking now only of getting out into the daylight
and following the stream in the hope of finding poor Melchior's remains.

The same thoughts occurred to both of them: suppose the poor fellow was
beyond their reach, swept right away into the depths of some lake miles
away--what were they to do? Retrace their steps to the mouth of the
gorge, where their provision was left, or try to find their way somehow
over the mountains? It would be a fearful task, ignorant of their way,
faint from want of food, weak from exhaustion. It was now for the first
time that Saxe realised how terrible the mountains were, and how easily
a person might be lost, or meet with a mishap that would mean laming,
perhaps death.

Then their thoughts of self gave place again to those relating to their
poor guide.

"We must find him!" Saxe cried involuntarily, and so loudly that Dale
turned and looked back at him wildly, for the thoughts had been exactly
his own.

"Yes," he said, his voice muffled by the roar of the waters; "we must
find him. The place is not so very large, after all. Wait till we get
out: I can't talk here."

For the roar had seemed to increase and the darkness to grow deeper for
the next few yards. The water, too, was nearer, the path having a steep
incline downward, with the natural result that the ledge was dripping
with moisture, and from time to time some wave would strike the opposite
wall with a heavy slap, and the spray fly in quite a gust, as of rain,
full in their faces.

"It can't be much farther," thought Saxe, as he went cautiously down the
incline, to see that the rock on his right now bent right over, and had
caused the darkness. Then the path bent to the left, struck off to the
right again, and was now down within three or four feet of the water,
after which there was a fresh corner to be turned, where the wave that
rose up seemed somehow illuminated; but they were quite close up, with
the water almost running over the path, before they fully grasped that
the light came from the side, bringing with it some hope, even if it
were little; and at the same time Saxe felt the possibility of going
back the same way now that the full extent of the danger could be
grasped.

"Poor Melchior!" he muttered--"it must have been impossible for him to
have led the mule through here;" and as he thought, this, the full light
o