"I understand that the river bends around the range, and the crest of the first rise seems no great height," he said. "There is evidently--a bench I think you call it--before you come to the snow, and the ascent should be practicable for a lady. Take these gla.s.ses and look at it."
Weston, who took the gla.s.ses, swept them along the hillside across the lake. It rose very steeply from the water"s edge, but the slope was uniform, and as a good deal of it consisted apparently of lightly-covered rock and gravel the pines were thinner, and there was less undergrowth than usual. Far above him the smooth ascent broke off abruptly, and, though he could not see beyond the edge, there certainly appeared to be a plateau between it and the farther wall of rock and snow.
"I think one could get up so far without very much trouble, sir," he said.
"That," replied Kinnaird, "is how it strikes me. My daughter is rather a good mountaineer, and Miss Stirling is just as anxious to make the ascent. I may say that we have had some experience in Switzerland, not to mention the hills among the English lakes. Do you know anything about climbing?"
"No, sir," said Weston; "not as it is understood in Switzerland, anyway. I don"t suppose there"s an ice-ax in the country, and I never saw a party roped. Still, I have been up seven or eight thousand feet several times."
"What were you doing?" asked Miss Kinnaird.
Weston saw the faint twinkle in Ida Stirling"s eyes, and fancied that he understood it. Very few of the inhabitants of that country climb for pleasure, and it is difficult to obtain any of the regulation mountaineering paraphernalia there; but when the wandering prospector finds a snow-crested range in his way he usually scrambles over it and carries his provisions and blankets along with him. The fact that there are no routes mapped out, and no chalets or club shelters to sleep in, does not trouble men of that kind.
"Once or twice we were on the gold trail," he said. "Another time I packed for a couple of Englishmen who were looking for mountain goats."
"Get any?" Kinnaird asked sharply.
"No, sir. We didn"t even see one," said Weston; and again he noticed Miss Stirling"s smile.
"Well," said Kinnaird, "we are breaking camp tomorrow, and my idea is that Mrs. Kinnaird should go on with the baggage in the canoes. The rest of us will follow the bench, and after working around the head of the big spur yonder come down again to the water by the other slope.
You are, of course, willing to make the ascent with us?"
"I am under your orders," said Weston. "Still, I shouldn"t advise it."
"Why?"
It was rather difficult to answer. Weston could not tell the major that he considered him a little too old for that work, or that he was dubious about his daughter"s stamina and courage. He had seen self-confident strangers come down from those mountains dressed in rags, with their boots torn off their bleeding feet. Besides, he felt reasonably sure that, as he was not a professional guide, any advice that he might feel it wise to offer would not be heeded.
"I have heard that there is thick timber on the other slope," he said.
"It"s generally rather bad to get through."
Kinnaird, who never had been in really thick timber, dismissed the matter with a smile.
"We will start at six to-morrow, and endeavor to get down to camp again on the other side in the afternoon. You will arrange about provisions."
Weston said that he would do so, but he was not exactly pleased when he watched the major climb the hillside immediately behind them, with his gla.s.ses, to plot out the route. It seemed very probable that once he had fixed on one he would adhere to it at any cost, and, perhaps, the more persistently if the course in question appeared inadvisable to his companions. Weston did not pretend to be a great judge of character, but Kinnaird, who, it seemed, had held command in India, struck him as that kind of man. His wife was a little, placid lady, whose bodily vigor and any resolution of character she might once have possessed had apparently evaporated under the Indian sun, and, as far as Weston had noticed, she invariably agreed with whatever was said.
When he waited on them at supper their talk was of the easier ascents in Switzerland, and in the mountains of his own land, whose names rang like music in his ears--the Striding Edge, the Great Gable Needle, and Saddleback Crags. The Needle was certainly difficult to climb, but the Striding Edge on a still day was a secure promenade compared with some of the ledges along which he had seen western prospectors struggle with a month"s supplies.
Supper, which as usual was prepared about six o"clock, had been over an hour or two, when, after waiting for an opportunity, he found Ida alone beside the lake.
"Can"t you persuade these people not to go, Miss Stirling?" he asked.
The girl smiled.
"No," she said, "I think you ought to recognize that."
"Then can"t you make some excuse, for stopping behind with Mrs.
Kinnaird?"
"Why?"
Weston made a little gesture.
"It will probably be a tough climb. I"d rather you didn"t go."
Dusk was creeping up the hillside, but there was still a little light among the misty pines, and the girl flashed a quick glance at him. He seemed diffident, but it was evident that he did not wish her to go, and once more she felt that he aroused her curiosity.
"That," she observed, "is not exactly an answer. Why should I stay below?"
Weston was relieved at this, for it seemed preferable to him that she should be the one to raise the personal side of the question.
"Well," he said, "for one thing my employer is your father."
It occurred to the girl that the qualification might as well have been left out. It was too suggestive, since it conveyed the impression that the fact he had mentioned was not the only one that influenced him; but she had noticed already that Weston was not a finished diplomatist. She became more curious as to why he was especially concerned about her safety, though, as a matter of fact, he could not have told her, because he did not know.
"Major and Miss Kinnaird are his guests," she observed.
Weston recognized the reproof in this, and stood silent a moment or two until she spoke again.
"Are you afraid my nerve may not prove equal to Miss Kinnaird"s?" she asked.
Weston smiled and answered without reflection.
"No," he said, "that certainly wasn"t troubling me. When the pinch comes you could be relied on."
He was conscious that he had gone too far, and, as often happens in such cases, immediately went further.
"There is something about you that makes me sure of it."
"Well," said Ida, coldly, "it is very probable that the pinch won"t come at all."
She turned away and left him; and Weston frowned at the supper dishes he had carried down to the lake.
"I dare say that looked very much like a gratuitous impertinence from--the packer," he observed.
He awakened at four the next morning; and the mists were steaming among the pines when the Indians ferried the party across the lake.
Then for a couple of hours they went up steadily, between apparently endless ranks of climbing pines, with odd streams of loose gravel sliding down beneath their feet. Kinnaird led the way; the girls came behind him climbing well; and Weston brought up the rear with an ample supply of provisions and a couple of big blankets strapped on his shoulders. He explained that the blankets would do to sit on, but, knowing a little about those mountains, he was somewhat dubious about their getting down again that afternoon. The load was heavy, and by and by his injured foot commenced to grow painful.
Then they left the last of the dwindling pines behind, and pushed on along a slope that was strewn with shattered rock and debris which made walking arduous. Then they reached a scarp of rock ground smooth by the slipping down of melting snow, and when they had crossed that their difficulties began. The scarp broke off on the verge of an almost precipitous rift, and a torrent that seemed drawn out into silk-like threads roared in the depths of it. A few pines were sprinkled about the slopes of the gully, and one or two of them which had fallen lay athwart the creek.
They stopped for a few minutes upon a dizzy ledge of rock, from which they looked far down across battalions of somber trees upon the gleaming lake below. Here Weston was guilty of an indiscretion. He admitted afterward that he ought to have known that a man used to command in India, who claimed some acquaintance with Alpine climbing, was not likely to be advised by him.
"I believe we could get down, sir, and there are several logs across the creek," he said. "We must get over it somehow, and the gully will probably run into a canon lower down."
"That," remarked Kinnaird, dryly, "is perfectly evident. It is, however, my intention to follow up the gully."
Weston was conscious that Ida Stirling was glancing at him, but his face remained expressionless; and as he suggested nothing further, they went on again. The mountain slope had been steadily growing steeper beneath them, and they had not yet reached the bench. They went up for another hour, and then came out upon the expected strip of plateau in the midst of which the gully died out. The plateau, however, lay on the northern side of a great peak, and was covered with slushy snow. Kinnaird looked somewhat dubiously at the latter, which seemed deep in the hollows.
"The snow will have gone once we get around the western shoulders," he said. "It must be almost as near to get down from that side, and the canoes will have gone on by now. Still, it"s rather a long time since breakfast."