Evil PowersRudy left Bex, and took his way home along the mountain
path. The air was fresh, but cold; for here amidst the deep snow,
the Ice Maiden reigned. He was so high up that the large trees
beneath him, with their thick foliage, appeared like garden plants,
and the pines and bushes even less. The Alpine roses grew near the
snow, which lay in detached stripes, and looked like linen laid out
to bleach. A blue gentian grew in his path, and he crushed it with
the butt end of his g*n. A little higher up, he espied two chamois.
Rudy's eyes glistened, and his thoughts flew at once in a different
direction; but he was not near enough to take a sure aim. He
ascended still higher, to a spot where a few rough blades of grass
grew between the blocks of stone and the chamois passed qui
