d your waist to tie it round his for
me to draw him up first. Have you the courage to do that!"

Saxe was silent.

"You see, it means staying down there alone in that place till I can
send you back the rope. There must be no shrinking, no losing your head
from scare. Do you think you have the courage to do this coolly!"

Saxe did not speak for a few moments, and Dale could see that his face
looked sallow and drawn till he had taken a long, deep breath, and then
he said quickly.

"No, I haven't enough courage to do it properly; but I'm going down to
do it as well as I can."

"God bless you, my boy!" cried Dale earnestly, as he grasped Saxe's
hand. "There, lay down your axe while I fasten on the rope, and then
I'll drive mine down into this crack and let the rope pass round it. I
can lower you down more easily then. Ah!"

He ejaculated this last in a tone full of disappointment, for as he
suddenly raised his hands to his breast, he realised the absence of that
which he had before taken for granted--the new rope hanging in a ring
over his shoulder.

"The ropes!" cried Saxe excitedly. "Melk has one; the other is hanging
in the tent. Here, I'll run back."

"No," said Dale; "I am stronger and more used to the work: I'll go. You
shout every now and then. Even if he does not answer you he may hear,
and it will encourage him to know that we are near."

"But hadn't we better go back for help?"

"Before we could get it the poor fellow might perish from cold and
exhaustion. Keep up your courage; I will not be a minute longer than I
can help."

He was hurrying along the upper side of the crevasse almost as he spoke,
and then Saxe felt his blood turn cold as he saw his companion step back
and leap over from the snow on to the ice at the other side, and begin
to descend the glacier as rapidly as the rugged nature of the place
would allow.

Saxe stood watching Dale for some time, and saw him turn twice to wave
his hand, while he became more than ever impressed by the tiny size of
the descending figure, showing as it did how vast were the precipices
and blocks of ice, and how enormous the ice river on which he stood,
must be.

Then, as he gazed, it seemed that another accident must have happened,
for Dale suddenly disappeared as if swallowed up in another crevasse.
But, as Saxe strained his eyes downward into the distance, he caught a
further glimpse of his companion as he passed out from among some
pyramids