way do we go?" asked Cottle presently.

"I suppose up by the stream. It's bound to lead up to the bog."

The stream in question was a torrent which fell in a series of leaps
through a narrow gorge in the rocks.

Fisher minor looked very blue.

"I wish I'd got my strong boots," said he.

The dismal tone in which he uttered the words startled the others.

"I say, young Fisher," said D'Arcy, "you're not done yet, are you!"

Fisher minor had not the pluck to say "Yes."

"I'll be game after this rest. I got a little blown up that last bit,
that's all."

"It doesn't look awfully far now," said Ashby.

"It's further than it looks. Come on; let's be jogging," said Wally.

The new ascent, which consisted chiefly in clambering from stone to
stone up the rocky ravine, was less exhausting than the tramp up the
bog, and as Wally was no better at this sort of climbing than any of the
rest, he did not dishearten them by getting hopelessly ahead, but kept
with the party. Occasionally they had to help one another up a
specially stiff ledge, and this mutual accommodation was an additional
source of comfort to the weak goers. Progress was very slow. Cash,
having hauled himself up on to a little platform of moss, looked at his
watch and was alarmed to find it was past one. The huge ravine, at the
far head of which they could see the open sky, seemed a tremendous
distance yet. And after that, according to Wally, was to come the bog
and the cliffs beyond, on which Wisdom lost his life.

Yet none of these things was quite so bad as the rolling up of some
fleecy clouds behind them, which effaced the view below, and seemed to
be crawling up the mountain in pursuit of them.

Cash pointed this out to Wally, who grunted.

"We shall miss the view from the top," said he.

"If we ever get there," said Cash.

On they scrambled again, casting every now and then a longing look
upward at the grim ravine head, and now and then an anxious glance
behind at the fast overhauling clouds.

"We're bound to get out of it up there," sang out Wally.

But almost as he spoke the light mist swept past him, blotting out
everything but the boulder he stood on and a rift of the dashing water
at his feet.

The clouds had befriended Fisher minor. They did what he durst not do;
ordered the party to halt.

"Where are you?" shouted Wally from the invisible. "Here; where are
you?"

"Stay there; and I'll come to you."

Slowly the party for