spider, till his friends above hauled him into place
again.

A little bit later, the party stood upon the wee
pedestal of the very summit, in a driving wind, and
looked out upon the vast green expanses of Italy
and a shoreless ocean of billowy Alps.

When I had read thus far, Harris burst into the
room in a noble excitement and said the ropes and
the guides were secured, and asked if I was ready.
I said I believed I wouldn't ascend the Altels this
time. I said Alp-climbing was a different thing from
what I had supposed it was, and so I judged we had
better study its points a little more before we went
definitely into it. But I told him to retain the
guides and order them to follow us to Zermatt, be-
cause I meant to use them there. I said I could
feel the spirit of adventure beginning to stir in me,
and was sure that the fell fascination of Alp-climbing
would soon be upon me. I said he could make
up his mind to it that we would do a deed before
we were a week older which would make the hair
of the timid curl with fright.

This made Harris happy, and filled him with
ambitious anticipations. He went at once to tell
the guides to follow us to Zermatt and bring all their
paraphernalia with them.

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