y all means!" answered Sir Philip gaily. "Anywhere you choose to go!"

Sigurd seemed satisfied, and lapsing into the calm, composed manner
which had distinguished him all day, he led the way as before, and they
resumed their march, this time in silence, for conversation was
well-nigh impossible. The nearer they came to the yet invisible Fall,
the more thunderous grew the din--it was as though they approached some
vast battle-field, where opposing armies were in full action, with all
the tumult of cannonade and musketry. The ascent grew steeper and more
difficult--at times the high barriers of rocks seemed almost
impassable,--often they were compelled to climb over confused heaps of
huge stones, through which the eddying water pushed its way with speed
and fury,--but Sigurd's precision was never at fault,--he leaped crag
after crag swiftly and skillfully, always lighting on a sure foothold,
and guiding the others to do the same. At last, at a sharp turn of one
of these rocky eminences, they perceived an enormous cloud of white
vapor rising up like smoke from the earth, and twisting itself as it
rose, in swaying, serpentine folds, as though some giant spirit-hand
were shaking it to and fro like a long flowing veil in the air. Sigurd
paused and pointed forward.

"Njedegorze!" he cried.

They all pressed on with some excitement. The ground vibrated beneath
their feet with the shock of the falling torrent, and the clash and
uproar of the disputing waters rolled in their ears like the grand,
sustained bass of some huge cathedral organ. Almost blinded by the spray
that dashed its disdainful drops in their faces, deafened by the
majestic, loud, and ceaseless eloquence that poured its persuasive force
into the splitting hearts of the rocks around them,--breathless with
climbing, and well-nigh tread out, they struggled on, and broke into one
unanimous shout of delight and triumph when they at last reached the
small hut that had been erected for the convenience of travellers who
might choose that way to journey to the Altenfjord,--and stood face to
face with the magnificent cascade, one of the grandest in Norway. What a
sublime spectacle it was!--that tempest of water sweeping sheer down the
towering rocks in one straight, broad, unbroken sheet of foam! A myriad
rainbows flashed in the torrent and vanished, to reappear again
instantly with redoubled lustre,--while the glory of the evening
sunlight glittering on one side of the f