stolen.

Not a morsel, not a mouthful remained--either of yak-beef or food of any
other kind--and all three, Fritz making the fourth, had to go supperless
to sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

GOING ABROAD FOR BREAKFAST.

The exertions which they had made in carrying and erecting the ladders
had so wearied them, that, despite their empty stomachs, all three were
able to sleep. Their slumber, however, was neither profound nor
prolonged; and one and another of them awoke at intervals during the
night and lay awake, reflecting upon the miserable fate that had
befallen them, and the poor prospects now before them.

They were even without the ordinary consolation of knowing that they
might find something to eat in the morning. Before they could have any
breakfast, they knew they would first have to find it in the forest.
They would have to search, find, and kill, before they could eat.

But they had reason now not only to be in doubt about procuring their
breakfast, but their dinner and supper--in short, their whole future
subsistence. Circumstances had become changed. The larder, hitherto
amply provided by Caspar's hunting skill, was now quite empty; and
although he could soon have replenished it had their ammunition not been
destroyed, it was now quite a different thing. Caspar's power was gone
along with his powder; and the deer and other quadrupeds, which were
known to be yet numerous in the valley--to say nothing of the winged
creatures that frequented it, could now smile at any attempt on the part
of Caspar to trouble them any longer with his double-barrelled
detonator. The gun would hereafter be as useless as a bar of iron.

Only one charge of powder for each barrel remained, and one more for
Karl's rifle. When these three should be fired off, not another shot
might ever again be heard ringing through that silent valley, and waking
the echoes of the surrounding cliffs.

But it had not yet entered their minds that they might be unable to kill
any of the wild animals with which the place abounded. Had they thought
so, they would have been unhappy indeed--perhaps so anxious as not to
have slept another wink for that night. But they did not yet
contemplate the future so despondingly. They hoped that, even without
their guns, they would still be enabled to procure sufficient game for
their support; and as they all lay awake, just before the breaking of
the day, this became the subject of their conversa