y six or seven hundred
thousand men wuz lost in it, an' now that it's over it's got to stop
right thar. I'm lookin' to the future, I am, to the quarter of a million
in gold that's comin' to me, an' the gorgeous ways in which I'm goin'
to spend it. Young William, see that big mountain ram standin' out on
the side o' the peak over thar. I believe he's the same feller that you
tried to stalk yesterday, an' that he's laughin' at you. He's a good
mile away, but I kin see the twinkle in his eye, an' ez shore ez I stan'
here he lifted his left foot to his nose an' twisted it 'bout in a
gesture which among us boys allers meant fight. Do you stan' his dare,
young William, or are you goin' to climb over thar whar he is an' hev it
out with him?"

"I'll let him alone," laughed William, looking at the splendid ram,
outlined so sharply in the clear mountain light. "I meant to do him
harm, but I'm glad I didn't. Maybe that Indian was engaged in the same
task, when he saw me and changed his hunting."

Then he shuddered once more at the growling he had heard and what he had
seen in the bushes the next morning, but his feeling of horror did not
last long, because they were now climbing well upon the shoulder of the
White Dome and the spectacle, magnificent and inspiring, claimed all
their attention.

The last bushes and dwarfed vegetation disappeared. Before them rose
terrace on terrace, slope on slope of rock, golden or red in the sun,
and beyond them the great snow fields and the glaciers. Over it all
towered the White Dome, round and pure, the finest mountain Will had
ever seen. He never again saw anything that made a more deep and solemn
impression upon him. Far above all the strife and trouble of the world
swam the white peak.

Meanwhile the Little Giant continued to whistle merrily. He was not
awed, and he was not solemn. Prone to see the best in everything, he
enjoyed the magnificent panorama outspread before them, and also drew
from it arguments most favorable for their quest.

"We're absolutely safe from the warriors," he said. "We're above the
timber line, and they'd never come up here huntin'. An Indian doesn't do
anythin' more than he has to. He ain't goin' to wear hisself out
climbin' to the top o' a mounting ten miles high in order to hev a look
at the scenery. We won't be troubled by no warriors 'til we go down the
shoulder o' your White Dome on the other side."

He resumed his clear, musical whistling, pouring out