bove
this single noteworthy clump of ancient boled trees to be seen upon
these inhospitable heights that the thin bluish smoke arose.

To Drennen, frowning across the gulf separating him and his quarry,
there seemed but one conceivable reason why a human being should have
sought to win a way to that rocky aerie. From its nature it was all
but unscalable; from its position it commanded in limitless, sweeping
view all possible paths of approach. Did Sefton's party seek a hiding
place where defence even against great numbers would be a simple
matter, this nest upon the cliff tops was the ideal spot.

Thus Drennen answered the riddle. But there were other riddles which
he could not answer and which he gave over. Why had the horses been
left where they would be found so readily? Why that careless beacon
smoke where no man could fail to see it?

Max would see it and he would be hurrying, swifter than Drennen had
come because now it was daylight. With the need of haste crying in his
ears Drennen experienced the slipping by of slow hours with nothing
accomplished. Back and forth along the edge of the cliffs he searched
eagerly, like some great, gaunt questing hound, baffled by a cold
track. Sefton and those with him had come here, had found the way
down, had gained the far side two miles away across the lake. They had
gone before, so he knew that he could come after. But he grew feverish
over the delay, thinking as much of Max behind as of Sefton in front.

Again and again he thought that he had found the way down only to be
driven back and up when he had made a few perilous feet downward along
the beetling fall of rock. He sought tracks and found nothing; there
was nothing but hard rock here which kept no impress less than that of
the tread of the passing centuries. He even went down into the little
valley where the horses were, hoping that through some deep cleft chasm
the trail led circuitously to the lake shore. But he came back, again
baffled, again hurrying with the certainty upon him that Max, too, was
hurrying.

The sun was three hours high when Drennen found what he sought. With
the keen joy at the discovery there came deep wonder. It was the
approach to the lake; but the wonder arose from the unexpected nature
of the path itself. He had passed further and further north along the
cliffs until a couple of miles lay between him and the spot where this
latest quest had begun. And he came now to a cle