The Argosy — page 321: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

300 “Gittering Gold.” HH: ‘But rarely human eye has known A scene so stern as that dread lake, With its dark ledge of barren stone— Nor tree, nor shrub, nor plant, nor flower, Nor aught of vegetative power The weary eye may ken ; For all is rocks at random thrown, Black waves, bare crags, and banks of stone.” ROBERT ETHERIDGE knew no poetry, or surely these lines must have _ recurred to memory as he gazed on the gloomy Dauben See at the summit of the Gemmi Pass. A mile or so behind him lay the only habitation he had seen for hours, the little Schwarenbach Inn with its black and ghostly-looking barn; on his right stretched the cold grey waters of the long narrow lake, while on every side rose bare peaks of slaty rock, their bases encumbered with great mounds of crumbling, unpicturesque débris. No sign of human existence was to be seen except the rude track, little wider than a sheep-track, which skirted the edge of the lake. Although Robert Etheridge had travelled some considerable dis- tance that day, and was beginning to find each mile decidedly longer | than the last, he did not stop to gaze long on this wild and dreary, yet | striking scene. ‘The weather had been unsettled when he started | that morning from Kandersteg, and now the clouds hung low and threatening in the sky, a boding stillness rested over everything, and | the subtle odour of gathering electricity oppressed the atmosphere. | A more desolate scene in which to encounter an Alpine storm it | would be hard to find, and a solitary traveller might well hasten his steps at the thought, weary though those steps might chance to be. But all the haste Mr. Etheridge could make proved vain. Before he had left the lake behind him the first heavy drops of rain splashed | sullenly into its dark, still waters, and a sudden icy blast whistled shrilly through the pass. Low distant rumblings and mutterings were heard, then the jagged peaks on the left stood sharply out for 2 moment against a vivid background of steel-blue lightning, a terrific crash of thunder followed, and in another minute the full force of the storm was upon him. ‘The wind howled and raged from every quarter at once, the sullen waters rose into angry black waves, and — the rain fell in one continuous torrent. | Half-blinded by the almost incessant glare, nearly deafened by the | | reverberating roar, drenched to the skin by the descending torrent, beaten back at every step by the fierce ice-cold blast, Robert | struggled slowly forward, fighting his way inch by inch over the rough, ) uneven path. In vain he strove to discern some slightest coign of vantage against the fury of the tempest! the pitiless barren peaks held out no hope of shelter to even the keenest gaze. Stay! ‘There, Gomicbooks.conr