THE ibex-hunter's BETROTHAL. 323 



that they were in search of his master ; but this the wise 

 beast seemed to have intuitively understood, for he imme- 

 diately set out in the direction whence he had come. 

 Claudio and his two companions followed Vasco's lead for 

 nearly a league, when the dog stopped and commenced 

 scratching away the snow from below a projecting rock. 

 Here were found the " alforjas " (wallet) of the lost 

 man, still containing the bread and olives with which he 

 had set out. Vasco at once continued his course, leading 

 the way to one of the deepest and most magnificent canons 

 of the whole sierra. Here, on the very verge of a precipice 

 of a thousand feet sheer, the dog directed the rescuers to 

 his master's gun, which lay buried in the snow within a 

 foot of the abyss. The gun was cocked — a sure sign to the 

 serranos that at the moment of leaving it Bernal had been 

 in presence of game, momentarily expecting a shot. 

 Further the dog would not, or could not, go ; yet no sign 

 of Bernal could be seen on the crag-top. Clearly he must 

 have slipped, fallen over into the tremendous abyss beneath. 

 The men separated, two going to right and left to seek some 

 spot, some cleft or ledge, by which the crag might be 

 descended, the third remaining above to guide the search. 

 It was a perilous service on those slippery, ice-clad rocks. 

 After an hour's labour, Claudio managed to reach a ledge 

 midway down the precipice, just beneath the spot where 

 Guarro remained on the height above : and here the dog 

 (which had steadily followed the climber whose course at 

 the moment led in the right direction) at once indicated a 

 point above some big boulders which lay balanced on the 

 narrow shelf. Here, beneath the frozen snow, lay poor 

 Bernal Gonzalvo, almost every bone in his once shapely 

 form smashed into splinters by that terrible fall of 

 500 feet. And there, on that dizzy ledge, his remains 

 lie still. There they had to be left ; for it was found 

 impossible to remove the body, or to carry it along the 

 ledges and "chimneys" by which the rescue party had 

 descended. It was, after all, an appropriate resting-place 

 for the luckless ibex-hunter. The three men heaped up a 

 pile of stones to protect his remains from the maw of 



Y 2 



