you lose your whole
pay. If you carry me through, I give you half a dollar. If you don't
really carry me through, you have nothing."

Rollo agreed to these conditions, and Mr. George proceeded to shut up
the map and the guide book, and to put them in his hands.

"I will sit down here now," said Rollo, "and study the map and the guide
book until I have learned all I can from them, and then I will go and
talk with the landlord."

Mr. George did not make any reply to this remark, but taking out a small
portfolio, containing writing materials, from his pocket, he set himself
at work writing some letters; having, apparently, dismissed the whole
subject of the mode of crossing the Brunig entirely from his mind.

Rollo took his seat at a table on the balcony in a corner opposite to
the place where his uncle was writing, and spread out the map before
him. His seat commanded a very extended and magnificent view. In the
foreground were the green fields, the gardens, and the orchards of the
lower valley. Beyond, green pasturages were seen extending over the
lower declivities of the mountains, with hamlets perched here and there
upon the shelving rocks, and winding and zigzag roads ascending from one
elevation to another, while here and there prodigious cataracts and
cascades were to be seen, falling down hundreds of feet, over
perpendicular precipices, or issuing from frightful chasms. Rollo
stopped occasionally to gaze upon these scenes; and sometimes he would
pause to put a spy glass to his eye, in order to watch the progress of
the parties of travellers that were to be seen, from time to time,
coming down along a winding path which descended the face of the
mountain about two or three miles distant, across the valley. With the
exception of these brief interruptions, Rollo continued very steadily at
his work; and in about half an hour he shut up the map, and put it in
its case, saying, in a tone of great apparent satisfaction,--

"There! I understand it now perfectly."

He was in hopes that his uncle would have asked him some questions about
the route, in order that he might show how fully he had made himself
acquainted with it; but Mr. George said nothing, and so Rollo went away
to find the landlord.

* * * * *

That night, just before bed time, Mr. George asked Rollo what time he
was going to set out the next morning.

"Immediately after breakfast," said Rollo.

"Are we going to ride