On the crest of the spur the road turned to the left, climbed at an easier angle. The view, hitherto much masked by closely overhanging slopes, opened out. To right and left the gaze plunged into blue depths, fell on miniature woods and thin white strips that were roads. Far away on either hand the mountain ranges lifted themselves, superb, into the blue sky. But directly in front the higher peaks were not seen. A sheer wall of dark rock barred the view as effectually as it seemed to bar further progress. At the foot of the precipice was a stationary column of motor-lorries, tiny by comparison with the towering mountain. The road went straight up to it. The captain in the car bestirred himself, picked up his heavy fur coat. Far away and high above was a prolonged rumbling roar that seemed to re-echo from invisible walls in the upper atmosphere. Involuntarily the captain raised his eyes. The blue sky was untroubled. Upon the face of the rock--which leaned back less precipitously than had appeared--swarmed hundreds of grey-uniformed engineers. They were laying a pathway of heavy timber, erecting huge sheers, arranging a complicated tackle of thick rope and large pulleys. Back along the road the first of the heavy pieces for which this hoisting apparatus was in preparation lumbered already into sight. This tackle was not the only feature on the precipice. A little further along, at the centre of the line of lorries, a light cantilever steel standard was connected by drooping wire ropes to the summit. Suspended from those ropes by a running-gear of pulleys a little car was gliding steadily upwards, another coming down. It was the _Teleferica_--the famous wire-rope railway, that, many times multiplied, made modern war possible at these high altitudes. Ammunition in boxes was being unloaded from the lorries, stacked on the roadside near the _Teleferica_. The downward-gliding car was seized by a group of waiting men, steadied, stopped, quickly loaded with the boxes. The staff-captain's motor drew up. He descended, walked towards the _Teleferica_, exchanged a salute with the dapper little ammunition officer superintending the work. "_Buon' giorno, signor capitano_," said the little lieutenant. "Are you going up to see the attack?" The captain nodded. "Ah! Some people have all the luck! I never see anything. My battery never has any casualties--and here am I left supernumerary. I might as well be mountaineering for my pleasure!" He drew a lugubrious grimace of comic, half-sincere self-pity. The captain struggled into his heavy fur coat, apparently superfluous here in the fierce heat which glowed from the rock in the noonday sun. "A glass of wine before you ascend, _capitano_!" said the lieutenant. "Come, I will take no denial!"