e he uttered a cry of delight and
amazement.

The slope on which he stood was merely a sort of gate to the
higher mountains, or rather it was a curtain hiding the view.

Before him, range on range and peak on peak, lay mighty
mountains, some of them shooting up almost three miles above the
sea, their crests and heads hid in eternal snow. Far away to
northward and westward stretched the tremendous maze, and it
seemed to Dick to have no end. A cold, dazzling sunlight poured
in floods over the snowy summits, and he felt a great sense of
awe. It was all so grand, so silent, and so near to the Infinite.
He saw the full majesty of the world and of the Power that had
created it. For a little while his mission and all human passions
and emotions floated away from him; he was content merely to
stand there, without thinking, but to feel the immensity and
majesty of it all.

Dick presently recovered himself and with a little laugh came
back to earth. But he was glad to have had those moments. He
began the descent, which was rougher and rockier than the ascent
had been, but the prospect was encouraging. The valley between
the ridge on the slope of which he stood and the higher one
beyond it seemed narrow, but he believed that he would find in it
the shelter and hiding that he and Albert wished.

As he went down the slope became steeper, but once more the
pines, sheltered from the snows and cruel winds, grew to a great
size. There was also so much outcropping of rock that Dick was
hopeful of finding another alcove deep enough to be converted
into a house.

When nearly down, he caught a gleam among the trees that he knew
was water, and again he was encouraged. Here was a certainty of
one thing that was an absolute necessity. Soon he was in the
valley, which he found exceedingly narrow and almost choked with
a growth of pine, ash, and aspen, a tiny brook flowing down its
center. He was tired and warm from the long descent and knelt
down and drank from the brook. Its waters were as cold as ice,
flowing down from the crest of one of the great peaks clad,
winter and summer, in snow.

Dick followed the brook for fully a mile, seeking everywhere a
suitable place in which he and his brother might make a home, but
he found none. The valley resembled in most of its aspects a
great canyon, and all the fertile earth on either side of the brook
was set closely with pine, ash, and aspen. These would form a
shelter from wi