next.

"We sure never came over anything like this!" the rest of the party began
complaining. But on they scuttled, leapt and sprawled, no one finding any
better way.

"Hurry, there's our lake!" shouted Pedro finally. "I'll bet if I could
throw a stone hard enough, it would scare the fish."

But Norris spoke in alarm: "We couldn't see any lake on the trail going
up. On the contrary, we saw the peak to our left. Don't you remember?
Now see! That peak is on our _right_!"

"Fellows, we are on the wrong side of this ridge," he decided. "And what
is more, instead of going back down the middle crest, we have gone clear
on to the third peak." (For the ridge was a three peaked affair, the
middle being the lowest.) "The best thing now is to circle around as near
the top as we can go, till we strike the trail. If we keep circling, we
are bound to strike it sooner or later. But let's not all go together, or
we might start a rock-slide. Let's 'watch our step!' What would we do if
one of you put his ankle out of commission?"

The boys had little breath to waste on comment. Probably none but Norris
had any vivid realization of the danger they were in, but each fellow had
a keen eye to keeping his footing. Rock-slides the three boys had never
seen, but a sprained knee or a crushed foot was something they could
understand. Pedro also had a weather eye out for rattlesnakes, to whom
these rocks would have been paradise if it had not been such a chill
elevation.

As the sun sank lower and lower, they began secretly to wonder what it
would be to have to spend the night on this windy peak, without even an
emergency ration,--unpardonable over-thought! They circled steadily,
Norris now in the lead, the boys spreading out fan-wise as they followed,
Pedro even getting clear to the foot of the granite where he thought he
would have easier going through the woods, though he would also have a
larger arc to traverse. He felt safer on solid ground, though had he
measured, he might have seen that he had climbed as far in going down as
did the others in circling around.

Once a huge bowlder that overhung a precipice rocked under Ted, and it
was only by a swift spring that he saved himself. Many of the smaller
rocks tipped warningly, and he frequently stumbled. How slow their
progress seemed! How fast the sun was sinking in the west! And how
astoundingly their shoes were wearing through! It was three hours later
that Pedro, down in the edge of