Hugh and Jack waited until he had come up, and then Hugh, shaking his head, said to him, "That wasn't very smart, Joe. You'd better not try any more experiments of that kind; it's dangerous. A man may slip any time on one of these smooth icy slopes, and if he does he never can tell where he'll stop. You might have slid down there and brought up against the rocks, and broken some bones or killed yourself, and then we'd have had a hard time packing you down this hill and taking you into the agency. Then, besides that, sometimes these big pieces of ice are all cracked and full of holes, and if anyone should slip into one of those he might go down to the bottom and get killed by the fall on the rocks below, or if he stuck somewhere half way down he'd freeze to death before he could be hauled out. One thing we'll have to do after this when we're climbing in bad places; that is, to bring along a couple of sling ropes and tie ourselves together. It isn't likely that all three of us will slip and fall at the same time, and if only one slips, the other two can haul him out."
"That's a mighty good idea," said Jack; "I was scared when I saw Joe sliding down that ice. I remember reading about people climbing the mountains in Switzerland where they carry ice axes. They're sort of like adzes, with long straight handles and a spike in the end of the handle, and are used for cutting steps in the ice or hard snow. The people who are climbing tie themselves together with ropes and go mighty slowly and carefully, so that there is no danger of more than one man slipping at the same time. They go along one by one, and when one man is moving--I mean, of course, in bad places--the others all stand still and fasten their axes in the ice or hang on to the rope, so that if he does slip, there's no trouble about catching him. I remember reading that most of the accidents happen where people have so much confidence in themselves that they are not willing to be roped together, and some man makes a blunder and falls and the others just have to stand and look at him."
"Well," said Hugh, "if we're going to do much climbing around here, we ought to fix ourselves out in some such way as that. I tell you I'm too old myself to try any of these experiments.