acquaintance with the snow-topped peaks and ranges of Switzerland,
and his eyes dilated with awe and wonder when first he beheld the
dazzling white peaks standing out clear against a sunny sky.

He was not a youth of much imagination or poetry, but he did feel a
strange thrilling of the pulses as he looked upon this wonderful
sight.

But Lord Claud's face was cool and impassive as usual, and his
remark was:

"Very fine to look at, good Tom, but ugly customers to tackle. A
snowstorm up amongst those mountain peaks may well be the death of
either or both of us, and the snow will be our winding sheet."

"Have we to cross those snows, my lord? to scale those lofty
peaks?"

"We shall have plenty of snow, Tom, without scaling the peaks. At
this season the passes will be deep in snow. We shall have to trust
to a guide to take us safely over; and the very guide may be a spy
and a traitor himself."

"But, my lord, I thought you knew the way? I thought you had
crossed the pass once?"

"So I have, Tom; but these snow fields are treacherous places, and
the track shifts and changes with every winter's snow. You will
see, when you get amongst them, what a savage scene they present.
In summer it is none so bad; but we are yet in the grip of winter,
and though the foothold is harder and better on the ice slopes, the
cold is keen and cruel, and the snowfalls frequent and dangerous."

"And the horses, my lord?"

"Those we must needs leave behind us for a while, Tom. I do not say
that we could not get them over, for, methinks, Hannibal must needs
have brought his horsemen across in days of yore, and where any
other horse has been, there could Lucifer and Nell Gwynne travel.
But I fear the poor beasts would suffer sorely; and I misdoubt me
if they would not be more care than use to us. They have done their
work gallantly, so far; and they will take us back as gallantly, I
doubt not, when our task is done. Meantime, I know a pleasant and
sheltered valley, where dwell some honest folk with whom I tarried
in bygone days, to heal me of a fever I had caught in the hot
Italian plains. There we will leave them; and there, Tom, if we
lose sight of each other, will we meet when our appointed tasks be
done.

"There are two places where we may find a safe asylum in this wild
land. One is the valley to which we are now bending our steps,
which nestles not far from the foot of the great mountain men call
the St. Bernard; the other is at