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CHAPTER XXV. 



THE KROTENKOPF AND THE KRAMER. 



Bauer was to come from Farchant, and meet me at the 

 Oester Berg ; I therefore started alone from Partenkir- 

 chen, and went up the well-known path leading to the 

 hut. As I walked slowly on, with that deliberate pace 

 which, when you have a long ascent before you, it is 

 well to choose, I presently reached a bushy spot, where 

 however a precipitous steep on one side showed the val- 

 ley, with its winding stream and cottages and pasturage 

 lying at my feet. On a sudden, from out the green 

 branches on my right, rose Bauer to his full height, 

 and gave me a cheerful greeting. It was like one of 

 Roderick Dim's men starting up from his ambush of 

 heather.* 



* I must here give some account of the excellent young hunter, whom 

 I greatly liked for his amiable disposition, his kind and gentle manners, 

 his daring courage, and his ever-cheerful nature. His open, honest 

 countenance at once won your favour. He was one of the best climbers 

 far around ; and he longed to attempt some ascent beset with difficulties. 

 I expressed a wish to go up the Zug Spitz, and he begged that when I 

 went he might accompany me. Since then he has been up, and I also ; 

 but his adventurous descent was so perilous that it may here be noticed. 



It was the intention of some of the villagers to plant a large ircn cross 

 on the top of the Zug Spitz (10,094 feet high), to be carried up in parts, 

 and put together on the summit. Accordingly a party set out one after- 

 noon from Partenkirchen, and it was only when Bauer came home in 



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