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The little clergyman nodded and broke in: “They were found, close together, on a ledge two thousand feet below. Your son, sir, was not much mutilated, though many limbs were broken–and his spine and neck. The bodies were found the next day and brought down. We did all that was possible. Shall I take you and madame to the grave?”

But the guide had not finished. “He fell almost on top of Michel, and the two went spinning down the couloir out of sight. I do not think that Michel uttered any cry: but the Herr, as the strain came and he bent backwards against it, seeking to get his axe free and plant it . . . though that would have been useless . . . the Herr cried once and very loud . . . such a strange cry!–“

“Madame will be glad,” interrupted the clergyman again, who had heard Christian’s story at the inquest,–“Madame will be glad”–he addressed Miss Bracy, who, as he was dimly aware, had been standing throughout with face averted, staring up at the far-away cliffs. “The young man’s last thoughts–“

But Christian was not to be denied. He had told the story a score of times during the last three days, and had assured himself by every evidence that he could tell it effectively. He was something of an egoist, too, and the climax he had in mind was that of his own emotions in recrossing the fatal couloir ropeless, with shaking knees, haunted by the Englishman’s last cry.

“Such a strange cry,” he persisted. “His eyes were on mine for a moment . . . then they turned from me to the couloir and the great space below, It was then he uttered it, stretching out his hands as the rope pulled him forward–yet not as one afraid. ‘Mother!’ he cried: just that, and only once–‘Mother!'”

Mr. Frank looked up sharply, and turned his head towards Miss Bracy. The clergyman and the guide also had their eyes on her, the latter waiting for the effect of his climax.

“It must be a consolation to you–” the clergyman began to mumble.

But Miss Bracy did not turn. Mr. Frank withdrew his eyes from her and fixed them again on the gaudy tablecloth. She continued to stare up at he clean ice-fields, the pencilled cliffs. She did not even move.

So Bassett was avenged.