replied,
forcing a laugh. "Thank you many times for saving me."

"I feared that I frightened you, and made you lose your footing," the
chamois hunter answered.

"I think on the contrary, if it hadn't been for you I should have lost
my life," said Virginia. "There should be a sign put up on that
tempting plateau, 'All except suicides beware.'"

"The necessity never occurred to us, my mates and me," returned the
man in the gray coat, passemoiled with green. "Until you came, gna'
Fraeulein, no tourist that I know of, has found it tempting."

Virginia's eyes lit with a sudden spark. The spirit monitor--that
match-making monitor--came back and dared her to a frolic, such a
frolic, she thought, as no girl on earth had ever had, or would have,
after her. And she could show this grave, soldier-hero of hers,
something new in life--something quite new, which it would not harm
him to know. Then, let come what would out of this adventure, at worst
she should always have an Olympian episode to remember.

"Until _I_ came?" she caught up his words, standing carefully on the
spot where he had placed her. "But I am no tourist; I am an explorer."

He lifted level, dark eyebrows, smiling faintly. And when he smiled,
half his austerity was gone.

So beautiful a girl as this need not rise beyond agreeable
commonplaceness of mind and speech to please a man; indeed, this
particular chamois hunter expected no more than good looks, a good
heart and a nice manner, from women. Yet this beauty bade fair, it
seemed, to hold surprises in reserve.

"I have brought down noble game to-day," he said to himself; and
aloud; "I know the Schneehorn well, and love it well. Still I can't
see what rewards it has for the explorer. Unless, gna' Fraeulein, you
are a climber or a geologist."

"I'm neither; yet I think I have seen something, a most rare thing,
I've wanted all my life to see."

The young man's face confessed curiosity. "Indeed? A rare thing that
lives here on the mountain?"

"I am not sure if it lives here. I should like to find out," replied
the girl.

"Might one inquire the name of this rare thing?" asked the chamois
hunter. "Perhaps, if I knew, it might turn out that I could help you
in the search. But first, if you'd let me lead you to the plateau,
where I think you were going? Here, your head might still grow a
little giddy, and it's not well to keep you standing, gna' Fraeulein,
on such a spot. You've passed all the worst now.