You have done it yourself, I daresay ?" The gaunt man smiled demurely, and the keen eyes twinkled in his flayed face.

He was, indeed, a palpable mountaineer.
"What, the Matterhorn ?" said he, lowering his voice and looking about him as if on the point of some discreditable admission.

"Oh, yes, I've done the Matterhorn, back and front and both sides, with and without guides; but everybody has, in these days.

It's nothing when you know the ropes and chains and things.

They've got everything up there now except an iron staircase.