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The three boys scrambled with all their speed, Walter helping the other two down the vast primeval heap of many-tinted rock-fragments which form the huge summit of Appenfell, and found themselves again on the short slippery grass, hardened with recent frosts, that barely covered the wave-like sweep of the hill-side.
"For goodness' sake shut up before you've driven us stark raving mad," said Walter, putting his hand over Henderson's lips. "Now, yes or no; will you come?" "Thee will I accompany " said Henderson, struggling to get clear of Walter, "to many-fountained Appenfell " "Hurrah! that'll do. We have got an answer out of you at last; and now go on spouting the whole Iliad if you like."
Either go on, and trust to God's mercy to keep us safe, or sit still here and hope that the mist may clear away." "That last'll never do," answered Kenrick; "I've seen the mist rest on Appenfell for days and days." "Besides," said Power, "unless we move on, at all hazards, night will be on us.
"It's been a strange day, hasn't it, Walter?" said Power at last, laying his hand on Walter's, and looking at him. "I shall never forget it; you have thrown a new light on one's time here." "Have I, Power? How? I didn't know it." "Why, on the top of Appenfell there, you opened my eyes to the fact that I've been living here a very selfish life.
"Him addressed in reply the laughter-loving son of Hender: Thou askest me, oh Evides, like to the immortals, Whether thee I will accompany, and the much-enduring Dubbs, And the counsellor Power, and the revered ox-eyed Kenrick, To the tops of thousand-crested many-fountained Appenfell."
For since the day on Appenfell, Walter had been the favourite of the school, and they were only too glad to follow Henderson in his irregular applause. There was an intoxicating sweetness in this popularity. Could Walter help keenly enjoying the general regard which thus, defiant of rules, broke out in his honour into spontaneous acclamations?
A December night on Appenfell, without food or extra coverings, and the chance of being kept indefinitely longer " the sentence ended in a shudder. "Yes; I don't know what we should look like in the morning," said Kenrick. "Let's move on, at all events; better that than the chance of being frozen and starved to death."
But in truth if they had mentioned this as their destination, no wise master would have given them permission to go, unless they promised to be accompanied by a guide; for the ascent of Appenfell, dangerous even in summer to all but those who well knew the features of the mountain, became in winter a perilous and foolhardy attempt.
Every one of the four was most anxious to get on, and reach the top of Appenfell, which was considered a very great feat among the boys even in summer, as the climb was dangerous and severe; and yet each generously wished to undergo the self-denial of turning back.
And stopping there they looked back at the dangers they had passed at Appenfell piled up to heaven with white clouds; at Bardlyn rift looming in black abysses beneath them; at the thin broken line of the Devil's Way. They looked: "As a man with difficult short breath, Forespent with toiling, 'scaped from sea to shore Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands At gaze."
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