ire the rainbow most, which over-arches the fall, and plays into
light, or dies away as the sunbeams touch the foam," said Violet.

"Doesn't it remind you of Al-Sirat's arch, Miss Home?" asked Kennedy.

"Haven't the pleasure of that gentleman's acquaintance," observed Cyril.

"Nor I," said Kennedy; "but Al-Sirat's arch is the bridge--narrow as the
edge of a razor, or the thread of an attenuated spider--which is
supposed to span the fiery abyss, over which the good _skate_ into
Paradise, while the bad topple over it. Don't you remember Byron's
lines about it in the Giaour?

"`Yea, _Soul_, and should our prophet say
That form was nought but breathing clay,
By Alla! I would answer nay;
Though on Al-Sirat's arch I stood,
That topples o'er the fiery flood,
With Paradise within my view,
And all its Houris beckoning through.'

"Pretty nearly the only lines of Byron I know." Somehow Kennedy was
looking at Violet while he repeated the lines.

A few minutes more brought them on to the great field of snow, through
which they toiled along laboriously, treading as much as possible in the
footsteps of the guide.

"This isn't a glacier, is it?" asked Cyril.

"Oh dear, no! If it were, you wouldn't find it such easy walking, for
it would be full of hidden crevasses, and we should have to march much
more carefully, occasionally poking our feet through the snow that
lightly covers a fathomless depth."

"Yes, you must have read in Murray that eerie story of the guide that
actually tumbled, though not very deep, into the centre of the glacier,
and found his way back to light down the bed of a sub-glacial torrent,
with no worse result than a broken arm."

"There is a still eerier story, though, of two brothers," said Kennedy,
"of whom one fell into a crevasse, and was caught on a ledge some fifty
feet down, where he could be actually seen and heard."

"Did he ever get out?" asked Violet.

"Yes; the guide went back four hours' walk, and brought ropes and
assistance just before dark, and meanwhile the other brother waited
anxiously by the side of the crevasse, talking, and letting down brandy
and other things to keep the poor fellow alive. He did escape, but not
without considerable risk of being frozen to death."

Beguiling the way with talk, they at last got over the tedious climb,
and reached the summit. Eva and Violet were very tired, but the
difficult and eager air of the icy mountain-top was exhilarat