Third Man on the Mountain Page #5

- There couldn't be.

- But there is.

Rudi!

- What on earth are you doing here?

- I've come to join you, sir.

Join me?

Yes, to climb the Citadel.

I know what you're thinking,

but I've learned since last time.

Oh, Emil Saxo of Broli,

meet Rudi Matt of Kurtal.

- Kurtal?

- Son of the great Josef Matt.

So?

Come and have some breakfast, Rudi.

We'll talk this over.

Sit down, Rudi.

When did you leave Kurtal?

Late last night, sir.

And what did your mother and Franz say

about you coming?

Oh, they said it was all right.

- You mean they gave their permission?

- Mmm.

Why would Franz let you come

if he wouldn't come himself?

The sun is up. We'd better get going.

- You're starting today?

- No, today we're just looking around.

Perhaps we'll follow the ridge

as far as the Fortress. If we can make it.

I think we can make it. I think we...

We? You mean this boy is coming?

Well, why not? He can climb, and well.

Still no reason to drag a boy

up 6,000 feet to the top of the Citadel,

no matter whose son he is.

It's not the Citadel

we're climbing today, Emil.

You are the master.

Now, listen to me, Rudi.

One thing must be understood.

There'll be no experimenting,

no individual climbing

and no route finding of your own.

You'll be an apprentice porter,

and that's all.

That's enough.

I told you, I've learned my lesson.

All right, let's make a start.

All I could find out was

there's only two of them.

- Did they have equipment, porters?

- Nothing.

No one's been near that mountain for 15...

- What's the matter?

- Haven't you heard the news?

- What news?

- The Englishman is climbing the Citadel.

It's not possible.

Maybe it's not possible, but he's trying.

He may be crazy, but he's not so crazy

as to try and climb the Citadel alone.

- Who said he was alone?

- You mean he has a guide?

- What guide went with him?

- He's with Emil Saxo.

- Who told you that?

- Today I went to Broli on business.

But no one cared about business.

All they would talk about

was this Captain Winter and Emil Saxo.

How they left yesterday for the Citadel.

All afternoon we've been watching through

the telescope, but we couldn't see them.

And we won't, because the mountain

will strike, throw them down.

Saxo... Emil Saxo. I might have known it.

Can you see them?

Yes, I think so.

And, unless there are

spots before my eyes...

You look, Lizbeth.

I don't want to make a fool of myself.

No, Teo, there are

no spots before your eyes,

any more than there were a pair of boots

in the wood box this morning.

- There are three of them.

- Yes!

They are waiting for me, over in the tavern.

I mustn't keep them in suspense.

Then go, but don't blurt it out.

Make them suffer.

- Have you seen them, Teo?

- I have.

Oh, yes. Yes. They're up there all right.

- I think he means it.

- Let's have a look.

It's no good looking now.

I watched all the time they were in sight

until they moved in behind the ridge.

Are you sure of this?

You swear that you saw them?

Marie, a beer.

Yes, of course I can swear.

For almost five minutes I watched

as they moved up in a row.

One... two... three.

Three? Did you say three?

That's right.

Thank you, Marie.

- Three. How could there be three?

- You didn't hear that in Broli?

No, they said nothing about a third one.

Let's drink to him.

To the third man on the mountain.

To Rudi Matt!

The only true mountaineer in Kurtal.

Angel face? A mountaineer?

What are you talking about?

Rudi would be the last...

It is Rudi. It's my fool of a nephew

who's on the Citadel.

His bed was empty

when his mother went to wake him.

An ax and a pack the Englishman gave

him vanished from my house in the night.

And he hasn't been at work all day.

We thought he was sulking,

roaming the hills.

- Instead of saving your foolish faces.

- Watch what you say, old man.

I will. And what I say is this.

You call yourselves guides.

I call you a herd of sheep.

Every day you go out and climb peaks

that have been climbed 100 times before.

Peaks your grandmothers could climb.

Then you come back

and tell yourselves how good you are.

Well, maybe now you'll find out

you're not so good.

Three climbers are on the Citadel tonight.

An Englishman, a man from Broli,

and from Kurtal, who? A man?

No. A boy.

An 18-year-old boy,

who alone among you is not afraid.

- Who's afraid?

- You are, bigmouth. You all are.

Since Josef Matt died 16 years ago,

not one of you has dared

set foot on the Citadel.

All right, sit in the tavern.

Swill your beer.

Do you care if the world no longer knows

the Citadel as the mountain of Kurtal,

but as the mountain of Broli?

You heard what he said,

and he's lucky he's standing on his feet.

I'm not a coward,

nor is any guide of Kurtal.

We are not fools

who want to throw away our lives.

Too many men have died on the Citadel.

It has not been climbed.

Nor will it ever be.

This I will do. Tomorrow morning,

I will go to the Citadel.

I will go on

until I find the three who are up there.

And when I find them,

I shall talk Captain Winter out of his

foolishness and bring down my nephew.

I'll go with you.

- And me.

- Count me in.

- Also my brother.

- With myself, that makes five.

- Six.

- You?

I won't hold you up.

This is something I don't intend to miss.

All right.

Oh, Teo, you were wonderful.

You were beautiful. I wish somebody

had written it down for my grandchildren.

Look out!

Captain Winter!

Captain Winter?

It's nothing. It just grazed me.

Out of the way, boy.

It was stupid, letting you try

such a slope in this weather.

Do you think it was the mountain

warning us?

No, sir. I agree with Herr Saxo.

We didn't even reach

the base of the Fortress.

Don't worry about that. I've been

thinking of a way past the Fortress.

It's either straight up, or round

the other side towards the east face.

No. My father and Sir Edward

tried both of those ways.

- Teo says there was no route.

- Perhaps they didn't try hard enough.

There's no use arguing.

Let's try and get back to the hut.

- You were starting without me.

- Not for the Citadel, Rudi.

We're going down to Broli for tents and

supplies. We'll be back in the morning.

Next day, if the weather's good...

Am I going to Broli with you,

or am I going to stay here?

- Neither. You're going back to Kurtal.

- What did I do this time?

Nothing. Even Emil had no complaints.

I want you to take a message to your uncle.

Tell him it's not too late.

Tell him I want him with us.

What was that?

- Who you want with us?

- The boy's uncle, Franz Lerner.

- Not with me.

- What do you mean?

A guide from Broli

does not climb with a guide from Kurtal.

That's petty and ridiculous.

Franz Lerner is one of the great guides

of Switzerland.

I've climbed with him on the Weisshorn,

the Dom, the Donnelberg.

But not the Citadel.

When you asked him to climb the Citadel,

he shook in his boots, didn't he?

So you had to come to Broli

to find yourself a guide.

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