182 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



" Stay here/' he answered : " I will go across and 

 fetch it." 



" No, I shall go ; but you can go too if you like," 

 I replied. 



" Indeed you had better stay," said Xavier ; " you 

 don't know what it is : if you get into the clam, you 

 will hardly come out again." 



" Nonsense, Xavier ! why look you first down 

 yonder ledge, and then to the rock. It is not very 

 easy, but it may be managed. And once in the clam, 

 we can climb up the other side somehow or other. 

 Now then, come ! I want to put an end to that poor 

 beast's suffering." 



" You had better not go," said Xavier gravely, and 

 without moving a step : " you don't know what it is, 

 I assure you. None of the gentlemen who have been 

 out stalking here ever went in. Indeed you had better 

 not, you cannot tell what it is till you are in it." 



" Have you been there?" I asked, 



" Yes, but it is an ugly place." 



" Well then, come ;" and I cautiously moved to- 

 ward the spot I had before indicated, as the only 

 place where it was possible to get down into the 

 chasm. I saw that Xavier did not at all like the ex- 

 pedition, and felt uncomfortable on my account, 

 but he said nothing. At last we were in the bed of 

 the clam, and a wild spot it was, much deeper too 

 than I had believed, and wider ; arid jagged rocks, 

 now that I stood beside them, were grown to twice 

 the size they had seemed before. There was no ver- 



