We arrived at the mountain guide’s hut just as the moon was setting. Dawn, clearly, was not far off, and little Hildi was leaning on my arm (though she did not realize it). It was a wild, deserted spot, on the very edge of the heights; an awesome prospect revealed itself to us: a mighty glacier, vast banks of pure snow, jagged cliffs, and tumbled rocks. It was all silvered by the dying moonlight, and an intense cold struck through us like a spear; not only a physical cold, either, but the cold of fear. How could anyone survive in this wilderness? I prayed that the girls would have had the sense to stay in the hut this time—always supposing that they had not perished on the way and we had missed their frozen bodies.

So it was with considerable trepidation that I opened the door; and our disappointment, on seeing the place empty, was almost too much to be borne. Still, I determined that we should not despair. I told Grindoff and Eliza to search the hut; there would probably be nothing there, but it would keep them occupied. Meanwhile, I took my telescope and went outside to look for any traces of the girls.

I saw their footprints in the snow—but that was hardly surprising, since I knew they had been there. I saw another set of footprints, which I took to be Hildi’s—and called her out, to check. They were. And it was she who pointed out to me that there were more prints—the girls’—all around the hut.

“It must have been after I left here, miss,” she said. “They must have come out to look around. They haven’t half trodden it about!”

It was true: the snow for some distance around the hut was disturbed. To my relief, there seemed to be no other prints but theirs. Hildi had moved a little further up the mountainside, and I saw her suddenly dart forward and peer closely at the ground. Then she turned and beckoned.

“What is it?” I said as I arrived at her side—but she had no need to answer, for there, clearly printed in the snow, were two sets of prints.

“They’re gone!” she said.

“Up the mountain, too. Oh, how vexing. How very vexing.”

“They can’t have been gone long, miss,” she said.

Just then Eliza came hurrying out of the hut, waving a piece of paper.

“Look! Look, Miss Davenport! Look what we’ve found!”