In a little while the sky broke in the East, a twilight dimly revealed the hills, Michel blew out the lantern, the blurred figures of the guides took shape and outline, and silently the morning dawned upon the world.
The guides moved on to the glacier and spread over it, ascending as they searched.
"You see, monsieur, there is very little snow this year," said Michel, chipping steps so that he and Chayne might round the corner of a wide crevasse.
"Yes, but it does not follow that he slipped," said Chayne, hotly, for he was beginning to resent that explanation as an imputation against his friend.
Slowly the party moved upward over the great slope of ice into the recess, looking for steps abruptly ending above a crevasse or for signs of an avalanche.

They came level with the lower end of a long rib of rock which crops out from the ice and lengthwise bisects the glacier.
Here the search ended for a while.

The rib of rocks is the natural path, and the guides climbed it quickly.

They came to the upper glacier and spread out once more, roped in couples.

They were now well within the great amphitheater.