ascended with infinite toil
and hourly risk, skirting sheer cliffs on narrow rock ledges, working
foot by foot over declivities where the horses dug their hoofs into a
precarious toe hold, and where a slip meant broken bones on the ragged
stones below. But win to the uppermost height they did, where an early
snowfall lay two inches deep in a thin forest of jack pine.

They broke out of a canon up which they had struggled all day onto a
level plot where the pine stood in somber ranks. A spring creek split
the flat in two. Beside this tiny stream Bill unlashed his packs. It
still lacked two hours of dark. But he made no comment, and Hazel
forbore to trouble him with questions. Once the packs were off and the
horses at liberty. Bill caught up his rifle.

"Come on, Hazel," he said. "Let's take a little hike."

The flat was small, and once clear of it the pines thinned out on a
steep, rocky slope so that westward they could overlook a vast network
of canons and mountain spurs. But ahead of them the mountain rose to
an upstanding backbone of jumbled granite, and on this backbone Bill
Wagstaff bent an anxious eye. Presently they sat down on a bowlder to
take a breathing spell after a stiff stretch of climbing. Hazel
slipped her hand in his and whispered:

"What is it, Billy-boy?"

"I'm afraid we can't get over here with the horses," he answered
slowly. "And if we can't find a pass of some kind--well, come on! It
isn't more than a quarter of a mile to the top."

He struck out again, clambering over great bowlders, clawing his way
along rocky shelves, with a hand outstretched to help her now and then.
Her perceptions quickened by the hint he had given, Hazel viewed the
long ridge for a possible crossing, and she was forced to the reluctant
conclusion that no hoofed beast save mountain sheep or goat could cross
that divide. Certainly not by the route they were taking. And north
and south as far as she could see the backbone ran like a solid wall.

It was a scant quarter mile to the top, beyond which no farther
mountain crests showed--only clear, blue sky. But it was a stretch
that taxed her endurance to the limit for the next hour. Just short of
the top Bill halted, and wiped the sweat out of his eyes. And as he
stood his gaze suddenly became fixed, a concentrated stare at a point
northward. He raised his glasses.

"By thunder!" he exclaimed. "I believe--it's me for the top."

He went up the few rem