p our foreheads, and fan ourselves with our
hats?" I asked.

"Let's talk about it," said the Boy. "It may warm us, just to
remember."

"Are you very cold?"

"Not so ve-r-y."

"Your teeth are chattering in your head. Stop, we'll have our
overcoats out of the packs."

"I don't want mine."

"Nonsense; you must have it."

"To tell the truth, I haven't got it with me. I gave it to the
upstairs waiter at Chamounix. He told me a lot about himself, and he
was in trouble, poor fellow; he'd been discharged for some fault or
other, and was so poor that he was going to walk home, in the farthest
part of Switzerland. You see, I thought as I was on the way south, I
wouldn't need an overcoat. I'd hardly ever wanted it so far, and the
waiter was a small, slim chap, not much bigger than I am. Anyhow, we
shall soon be at the hotel now, and we can walk fast."

He looked so white and spirit-like in the mist, with his big bright
eyes made brighter by the tired shadows underneath, that I would not
discourage him with the truth. If I had said that I feared we were
lost in the mist, and perhaps might not reach the hotel for hours, he
would have realised all his weariness and suffering. I made him wait,
however, and when the ghostly procession of man, woman, and beasts had
trailed up to us, I ordered a stop for Finois to be unloaded, that my
overcoat might be unearthed.

In place of the workmanlike pack which the mule might have borne, had
I not insisted on fulfilling a rash vow, my luggage was contained in
twin brown hold-alls bought at Martigny, and covered with a waterproof
cloth which was the property of Joseph.

Both these abominable rolls had to be taken off Finois' back and laid
upon the whitened grass, as I had forgotten in which one was stuffed
the coat that I had not worn for many days. Now at this bitter
moment, could my valet but have known it, he had his full revenge. I
longed for him as a thirsty traveller in the desert longs for a spring
of water. Yet I knew, deep down in my desolate heart, that Locker
would not have been able to cope with this crisis. In cities, he was
more efficient than most of his kind, but the Unusual was a bugbear to
him; and, lost in a freezing mountain mist, he would have lain down to
die with my horrible hold-alls still strapped and bulging. It is a
strange thing that most servants would consider themselves deeply
injured if asked to bear half the hardships which their masters
cheerfully u