like wasting time, my boy; but it may mean the help we want.
Yes, we will see."

Dale began to climb on the ice once more, but Saxe hung back.

"The sound comes from down here," he said.

"Possibly. But come up here, and we may hear it more plainly. Give me
your hand."

"I can manage," cried Saxe, and he seemed to have forgotten his
exhaustion as he sprang up the rugged blocks, and wound in and out till
they came to a smooth part, where Dale halted.

"Yes," he said, as the chipping went on; "the ice conducts the sound.
It comes more from the centre of the glacier."

"It doesn't," said Saxe to himself. "I'm sure it comes from below."

But he said nothing aloud, only followed his companion as he led him on,
and in and out, with the sound playing with their ears as the
will-o'-the-wisp is said to play with the eyes.

For sometimes it was heard plainly. Then, as they wandered on amidst
quite a labyrinth of piled-up ice that at another time they would have
shunned in dread of danger, and through which they were now impelled by
a strange feeling of excitement, the noise died quite away.

At such times they were in despair; but as they pressed on they could
hear the chipping again.

Finally Dale stopped short, beneath a tall spire of ice, and held up his
hand.

"I'm afraid we have wasted a valuable half-hour, Saxe," he said. "There
can be nothing here."

They shouted as they had shouted a dozen times before, but there was no
response, and Dale turned wearily in the direction from which they had
come, the perpendicular rocks of the valley indicating the course they
had to take, when suddenly the sound began again, apparently from close
beneath their feet.

"It must be out here," cried Saxe; and he went off to his right, and at
the end of a minute reached a comparatively level space that they had
not seen before.

"Take care!" cried Dale. "A crevasse over yonder."

Chip, chip, chip. There was the sound again, and as Saxe laid his ear
against the ice he heard it more distinctly.

"We're getting nearer," he cried. "It sounds underneath, but is farther
away. I know! I'm sure! I've felt it ever so long now. There's some
one down below."

Dale said nothing, but he thought the same, and stepping forward side by
side with the boy, they strode on together, with the chipping growing
plainer; and as their further progress was stopped by a wide crevasse
all doubt was at an end.

The sounds came up from t