“I didn’t know it was so near,” said Jock.  “Come and have a look at it.”

“Not on it,” said Armine, who had somewhat more Swiss experience than his brother.  “There’s no going there without a guide.”

“There’s no reason we should not get on the moraine,” said Jock ; and they presently began to scramble about among the rocks and boulders, trying to mount some larger one whence they might get a more general view of the form of the glacier.  Chico ran on before them, stimulated by some reminiscence of the rabbit-holes of Belforest, and they were looking after him and whistling him back; Armine heard a sudden cry and fall-—Jock had disappeared.  “Never mind!” he called up the next instant.  “I’m all right.  Only, come down here!  I’ve twisted my foot somehow.”

Armine scrambled round the rock over which he had fallen, a loose stone having turned with him.  He had pulled himself up, but even with an arm round Armine’s neck, he could not have walked a step on even ground, far less on these rough debris, which were painful walking even for the lightest, most springy tread.

“You must get to the inn and bring help,” he said, sinking down with a sigh.

“I suppose there’s nothing else to be done,” said Armine, unwillingly.  “You’ll have a terrible time to wait, unless I meet some one first.  I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“Not too quick till you get off this place,” said Jock, “or you’ll be down too, and here, help me off with this boot first.”

This was not done quickly or easily.  Jock was almost sick with the pain of the effort, and the bruise looked serious.  Armine tried to make him comfortable, and set out, as he thought, in the right direction, but he had hardly gone twenty steps before he came to a sudden standstill with an emphatic “I say!” then came back repeating “I say, Jock, we are close upon the glacier; I was as near as possible going down into an awful blue crack!”

“That’s why it’s getting so cold,” said Jock.  “Here, Chick, come and warm me.  Well, Armie, why ain’t you off?”

“Yes,” said Armine, with a quiver in his voice, “if I keep down by the side of the glacier, I suppose I must come to the Daubensee in time.”

“What!  Have we lost the way?” said Jock, beginning to look alarmed.

“There’s no doubt of that,” said Armine, “and what’s worse, that fog is coming up; but I’ve got my little compass here, and if I keep to the south-west, and down, I must strike the lake somewhere.  Goodbye, Jock.”

He looked white and braced up for the effort.  Jock caught hold of him.  “Don’t leave me, Armie,” he said; “you can’t-—you’ll fall into one of those crevasses.”

“You’d better let me go before the fog gets worse,” said Armine.

“I say you can’t; it’s not fit for a little chap like you.  If you fell it would be ever so much worse for us both.”

“I know!  But it is the less risk,” said Armine, gravely.