t as near heaven on earth to-day, in one way of
speaking, as you've ever been in your life afore, eh? Don't it look
close? But, I say, young un, what's up?'

'I don't know,' said Jack very faintly. 'I've gone to feel so queer.
I can hardly breathe, and my head aches as if it were going to burst.'

'Lie down, Jack, for a bit,' said the hunter kindly. 'It's the great
height as we're up. This air affects some folks terribly. I've seen
strong men helpless and hardly able to move, lower down than we are.
We're close to the top now, so we'll wait till you feel a bit better.'

Jack did feel better after a short rest, and, with Joe's help, managed
to creep slowly on, although he felt very ill and confused. At the top
they found it bitterly cold, as some clouds had rolled rapidly up and
obscured the bright sun. Jack shivered in spite of the blanket Joe
wrapped him in. The descent on the other side of the Range was even
harder on the mule than the terrible uphill drag, and Joe had to tie
the wheels of the buckboard to prevent it running on to Captain. The
road was so steep and stony, he could hardly keep his footing at times,
and in one place there was nothing but a broad ledge cut out of the
side of a rock, with a natural wall on one side and a terrible
precipice sloping away on the other.

It made Jack feel so giddy looking down such an awful depth, that Joe,
seeing how white he was, advised him to hold on to the back of the
buckboard and keep his eyes fixed on the mule.

'Trust yourself to Captain,' he said, 'and I promise you he ain't
likely to go over that, if caution is of any account. He ain't the one
to lose _his_ head on roads like this, as he knows 'em so well.'

Jack followed the advice given him, and got on much better, and when
they had gone down a mile or two his head felt less heavy, and he was
soon all right again.

Towards evening they approached a small settlement at the foot of the
pass, called Redwood. As they drove in they found the people in a
state of great excitement. A few hours before, the Sheriff of the
county had run down and fought a band of horse-thieves just outside the
village. The Sheriff and his men had won the fight, captured the
thieves, and secured the stolen horses in corrals through the village.
The place was almost in an uproar, and our travellers had some
difficulty in finding a place where they could lodge themselves and
their mule for the night. The Sheriff and his