Soon they came to Switzerland, which is away up in the mountains and very beautiful.

People travel from all parts of the world to climb these mountains and to see the wonderful scenery.

“Maybe it’s here we are to find Jackie and Peggs’ motheranfather,” said the Villain, “and not at the North Pole at all.”

“Oh, I hope so,” said Sweetclover.

It was getting very cold now, for you know that the higher you go up in the air, the colder it gets.  That’s why there’s snow on the mountain tops.  And it began to storm; at first tiny flakes of snow fell, and then faster and thicker till it was snowing very hard, and the pigeons could scarcely see where they were flying.

“It seems to me,” said the Villain, “that every time I get upon a boat or a bird or anything, it begins to storm.”

By this time it was really a blizzard and one by one the poor pigeons’ wings became so covered with snow they could not fly and fell to the ground and lay on the snow.

Of course they fell in different places, and Kernel Cob and Jackie Tar and Sweetclover and the Villain were separated.

Each one looked about for the others as best he could and, after much searching about, the Villain found Sweetclover huddled in the snow and very cold indeed.  So he pulled off his coat and wrapped it about her shoulders, although she tried her best to prevent him from making such a sacrifice, but he said: 

“I will certainly suffer more seeing you shiver, than I would from the cold itself.”

You see he was a kind-hearted Villain, and it was too bad that he was painted to look like one at all.

So he dug a hole in a snowbank and they crawled into it, and in that way they were shielded from the wind.

Night came on and Kernel Cob and Jackie Tar searched about, but it was so dark that they could not tell where they were going, but only went round and round in circles.

In the morning the snow stopped falling, and if it hadn’t been so cold it would have been a very beautiful sight.  Snow lay all about them as far as the eye could reach.

[Illustration]

You must know that in the Alps mountains, where they were, there are dogs, and very wonderful dogs they are, who live in the snowy mountains and are trained to go about to find lost travellers and to help them.

And one of these dogs came sniffing along and the first thing he did was to find the Villain, and you can imagine his and Sweetclover’s delight when they saw him.

Around his neck was a little knapsack, and this he told them to untie and they would find food and a roll of fine warm wool inside.

And putting the wool about them they were soon warm as toast.

“Let us try to find Kernel Cob and Jackie Tar before they die of the cold,” said the Villain.

“Very well,” said Saint Bernard, for that was the name of the dog, “Come with me and we’ll soon find them.”