ked him cruelly. He slept little. At
early dawn his captor offered him the same fare. By sun-up they were
under way again.

All that day they angled to the northwest. The pine forests gave way to
oaks, buckthorn, chaparral, as they entered lower country. Several times
Saleratus Bill made long detours to avoid clearings and ranches. Bob, in
spite of his strength and the excellence of his condition, reeled from
sheer weariness and pain. They made no stop at noon.

At two o'clock, or so, they left the last ranch and began once more
leisurely to climb. The slope was gentle. A badly washed and eroded
wagon grade led them on. It had not been used for years. The horses, now
very tired, plodded on dispiritedly.

Then, with the suddenness of a shift of scenery, they topped what seemed
to be a trifling rounded hill. On the other side the slope dropped sheer
away. Opposite and to north and south were the ranks of great mountains,
some dark with the blue of atmosphere before pines, others glittering
with snow. Directly beneath, almost under him, Bob saw a valley.

It was many thousand feet below, mathematically round, and completely
surrounded by lofty mountains. Indeed, already evening had there spread
its shadows, although to the rest of the world the sun was still hours
high. Through it flowed a river. From the height it looked like a piece
of translucent green glass in the still depths; like cotton-wool where
the rapids broke; for the great distance robbed it of all motion. This
stream issued from a gorge and flowed into another, both so narrow that
the lofty mountains seemed fairly to close them shut.

Through the clear air of the Sierras this valley looked like a toy, a
miniature. Every detail was distinct. Bob made out very plainly the
pleasant trees, and a bridge over the river, and the roofs of many
houses, and the streets of a little town.

To the left the wagon road dropped away down the steep side of the
mountain. Bob's eye could follow it, at first a band, then a ribbon,
finally a tiny white thread, as it wound and zigzagged, seeking its
contours, until finally it ran out on the level and rested at the bridge
end. Opposite, on the other mountain, he thought to make out here and
there faint suggestions of another way.

Though his eye thus embraced at a glance the whole length of the route,
Bob found it a two-hours' journey down. Always the walls of the
mountains rose higher and higher above him, gaining in majest