Equipment for yourself and one assistant will include
following articles" [here began a list of camping utensils,
scientific paraphernalia, and provisions]. "The steamer
_Penguin_ sails at five o'clock to-morrow morning. Kindly find
yourself on board at that hour. Any excuse for not complying
with these orders will be accepted as your resignation.

"SUSAN SMAWL,
"President Bronx Zoological Society."

"Lesard!" I shouted, trembling with fury.

He appeared at his door, chastely draped in pajamas; and he read the
insolent letter with terrified alacrity.

"What are you going to do--resign?" he asked, much frightened.

"Do!" I snarled, grinding my teeth; "I'm going--that's what I'm going
to do!"

"But--but you can't get ready and catch that steamer, too," he
stammered.

He did not know me.

VII

And so it came about that one calm evening towards the end of June,
William Spike and I went into camp under the southerly shelter of that
vast granite wall called the Hudson Mountains, there to await the
promised "further instructions."

It had been a tiresome trip by steamer to Anticosti, from there by
schooner to Widgeon Bay, then down the coast and up the Cape Clear
River to Port Porpoise. There we bought three pack-mules and started
due north on the Great Fur Trail. The second day out we passed Fort
Boise, the last outpost of civilization, and on the sixth day we were
travelling eastward under the granite mountain parapets.

On the evening of the sixth day out from Fort Boise we went into camp
for the last time before entering the unknown land.

I could see it already through my field-glasses, and while William was
building the fire I climbed up among the rocks above and sat down,
glasses levelled, to study the prospect.

There was nothing either extraordinary or forbidding in the landscape
which stretched out beyond; to the right the solid palisade of granite
cut off the view; to the left the palisade continued, an endless
barrier of sheer cliffs crowned with pine and hemlock. But the
interesting section of the landscape lay almost directly in front of
me--a rent in the mountain-wall through which appeared to run a level,
arid plain, miles wide, and as smooth and even as a highroad.

There could be no doubt concerning the significance of that rent in
the solid mountain-wall; and, moreover, it was exactly as William
Spike had described it. However,