resolve to run to the
nearest summit, in order to devour more easily the view. Thus they all
converged again and met on a neighbouring knoll that overtopped a
terrific precipice which over hung a small lake.

"The--Lake--of the--Clouds!" exclaimed Lucy, as she came up, breathless
and beaming.

"Impossible!" cried her father; "McAllister says it is on the other side
of the ridge, and we're not near the top yet. Where are Peter and
Jacky?"

"I cannot see them!" said George and Fred, in a breath.

"No more can I," cried Lucy.

No more could anybody, except a hunter or an eagle, for they were seated
quietly among grey rocks and brown ferns, which blended with their
costume so as to render them all but invisible.

The party on the knoll were, however, the reverse of invisible to Jacky
and his exhausted companion. They stood out, black as ink, against the
bright blue sky, and were so sharply defined that Jacky declared he
could see the "turn-up of Lucy's nose."

The reader must not suppose that Master Jacky was exhausted, like his
slender companion. A glance at his firm lip, flushed cheek, sturdy
little limbs, and bright eyes, would have made that abundantly plain.
No, Jacky was in a _peculiar_ frame of mind--that was all. He chose to
sit beside Peter, and, as he never condescended to give a reason for his
choice, we cannot state one. He appeared to be meditatively inclined
that day. Perhaps he was engaged in the concoction of some excruciating
piece of wickedness--who knows?

Suddenly Jacky turned with a look of earnest gravity towards his
companion, who was a woebegone spectacle of exhaustion. "I say, we'd
better go on, don't you think?"

Peter looked up languidly, sighed heavily, and laid his hand on the
fishing-basket full of sandwiches, which constituted his burden. It was
small and light, but to the poor boy it felt like a ton. Jacky's eyes
became still more owlishly wide, and his face graver than ever. He had
never seen him in this condition before--indeed, Jacky's experience of
life beyond the nursery being limited, he had never seen any one in such
a case before.

"I say, Peter, are you desprit blow'd?"

"Desprit," sighed Peter.

Jacky paused and gazed at his companion for nearly a minute.

"I say, d'ye think you could walk if you tried?"

"Oh, yes!" (with a groan and a smile;) "come, I'll try to push ahead
now."

"Here, give me the basket," cried Jacky, starting up with sudden and
tr