day to reach its base. You and Brown have no stockings, we none of us have proper clothing—no blankets, no provisions, and there's little prospect of game. We've come so far, and taxed our strength to the limit. Comparing the height of that mountain with this, I believe that no human being can climb the Grand Peak and survive. It is a region of eternal snow, barred to all vestige of life. We'll go back while we can. We have performed our duty, and we can see nothing from up here by reason of the cloud bank."
He looked at his thermometer.
"Four degrees below zero." Zero was the freezing-point.
He glanced sharply about.
"We must make haste. The storm is rising on us."
And even as he spoke the air turned raw and cloud wreaths began to float around them. So they back-tracked as fast as they could, and guided by a convenient ravine followed it down with such speed that they reached their camp at the base before dark, but in a snowstorm.
"Well," sighed John Brown. "The horses are safe, but the birds and beasts have eaten our deer and everything else."
The lieutenant shot a pheasant; of their meat
