"We are not alone here;" said Adelheid, pointing to the other
stone-covered roof--"there are travellers sleeping in yonder building,
too."
"Their sleep will be long, lady;" answered the guide, shaking his head
solemnly. "With two of them it has already lasted a twelvemonth and the
third has slept where you saw him since the fall of the avalanche in the
last days of April."
Adelheid recoiled a step, for his meaning was too plain to be
misunderstood. After looking at her gentle companion, she demanded if
those they had seen were in truth the bodies of travellers who had
perished on the mountain.
"Of no other, lady," returned Pierre, "This hut is for the living--that
for the dead. So near are the two to each other, when men journey on these
wild rocks in winter. I have known him who passed a short and troubled
night here, begin a sleep in the other before the turn of the day that is
not only deep enough, but which will last for ever. One of the three that
thou hast just seen was a guide like myself: he was buried in the falling
snow at the spot where the path leaves the plain of Velan below us.
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