"Hark!"
The guides and the one other traveller, a Mr. Graham, who had been at
the inn, were gathered at the border of the Daubensee, entreating,
almost ready to use force to get the poor mother home before the snow
should efface the tracks, and render the return to Schwarenbach
dangerous.
Ever since the alarm had been given there had been a going about with
lights, a shouting and seeking, all along the road where she had
parted with her sons. It was impossible in the fog to leave the
beaten track, and the traveller told her that rewards would be but
temptations to suicide.
Johnny had fortunately been so tired out that he had gone to bed soon
after coming in, and had not been wakened by the alarm till eleven
o'clock. Then, startled by the noises and lights, he had risen and
made his way to his aunt. Substantial help he could not give-—even
his German was halting, but he was her stay and help, and she would-—
as she knew afterwards-—have been infinitely more desolate without
him. And now, when all were persuading her to wait, as they said,
till more aid could be sent for to Kandersteg, he knew as well as she
did that it was but a kindly ruse to cover their despair, and was
striving to insist that another effort in daylight should be made.
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