ed ground, and
we shall soon be mounting places that are either dangerous or safe as
you conduct yourself."

"All right, Mr Dale; I'll be careful," said the lad.

"Never fear, herr," cried the guide; "I will not take you anywhere
dangerous--only to places where your fellow-countrymen have well marked
the way."

"Thank you," was the reply, in so peculiar a tone that the guide looked
at the speaker curiously.

"Yes," continued the latter; "I'll have a chat with you presently."

"I am ready, herr," said the man, rather distantly now. "You have seen
my book of testimonials, written by many English and German voyagers who
love the mountains!"

"Yes," said Richard Dale quietly; "and I want this boy to know what he
has to do."

"All right, Mr Dale," said the lad; "you may trust me."

"That's understood, then. You must obey me without question instantly,
just as I shall have to obey Melchior Staffeln. I have been out here a
dozen times before, and know a great deal; but he has been here all his
life, and has inherited the existence of his father and grandfather,
both guides. Now, is this understood!"

"Yes, of course, Mr Dale," said the boy, who had been impatiently
throwing stones into the middle of the little river flowing through the
valley; "but you are not going to take me for a walk every day, and make
us hold one another's hands?"

"I'm going to make you do exactly what Melchior thinks best," said his
companion, firmly. "And let me tell you, young fellow, there will be
times, if you care to go with me, when we shall be very glad to hold
each other's hands: up yonder, for instance, along that shelf, where you
can see the sheep."

He pointed toward where, high up the side of the narrow valley, a group
of white-woolled sheep could be seen browsing.

"What, those?" said the lad. "That's nothing. I thought these
mountains and places would be ever so high."

"Ah! I suppose so," said Dale dryly. "Why, you young ignoramus--you
young puppy, with your eyes not yet half opened--do you know how high
those sheep are above where we stand?"

"Those?" said the lad, who had been looking rather contemptuously at
everything he had seen since he had been on the Continent. "Perhaps a
couple of hundred feet--say three."

"Three hundred, Saxe? Why, my lad, they are a thousand feet if they are
an inch."

"Two thousand," said the guide quietly.

"What!" cried the boy. "Then how high is that point just peeping o