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It was true that for two nights and a day the two men must have already hung upon their ledge, that a third night was to follow. Still such endurance had been known in the annals of the Alps, and Lattery was a hard strong man. A girl came from the chalet and told him that his dinner was ready. Chayne forced himself to eat and stepped out again on to the platform.
True, there were the séracs those great slabs and pinnacles of ice set up on end and tottering, high above, where the glacier curved over a brow of rock and broke one of them might have fallen. But Lattery and he had so often ascended and descended that glacier on the way to the Charmoz and the Grépon and the Plan. He could not believe his friend had come to harm that way.
Kenyon spoke very quietly but with a conviction, and, indeed, a certain solemnity, which impressed his companion. "No," said Chayne, gently, "I shall not forget John Lattery." But his question was still unanswered, and by nature he was tenacious. His eyes were still upon Kenyon's face and he added: "What then?" "Only this," said Kenyon.
The camp-fire, the rock-slab for your floor and the black night about you for walls, the hours of talk, the ridge and the ice-slope, the bad times in storm and mist, the good times in the sunshine, the cold nights of hunger when you were caught by the darkness, the off-days when you lounged at your ease. You won't forget John Lattery."
"I think we had better go up to the Mer de Glace and look for them at the foot of the cliffs." "Monsieur, I have eight guides here and two will follow in the evening when they come home. We will send three of them, as a precaution, up the Mer de Glace. But I do not think they will find Monsieur Lattery there." "What do you mean?"
Never say a word against Monsieur Lattery if you would keep friends with Monsieur Chayne. See, I give you good advice in return for your kindness in visiting an old man. Nevertheless," and he dropped his voice in a pretence of secrecy and nodded emphatically: "It is true. Monsieur Lattery was not always sure on ice.
But it is not only the famous who are interesting. Look, madame! Here is your husband's friend, Monsieur Lattery a good climber but not always very sure on ice." "You always will say that, Michel," protested Chayne. "I never knew a man so obstinate." Michel Revailloud smiled and said to Sylvia: "I knew he would spring out on me.
"Yes it's from Lattery," he said, as he glanced first at the signature. Then he read the telegram and his face grew very grave. Lattery telegraphed from Courmayeur, the Italian village just across the chain of Mont Blanc: "Starting now by Col du Géant and Col des Nantillons." The Col du Géant is the most frequented pass across the chain, and no doubt the easiest.
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