t, as if it were a feat to stand so for
a second, with a craggy head cut out of the sheet of blue. Mountain
torrents, too far away to bring the merest murmur to the ear, spun and
plaited their quivering ropes of silver wire. The shadows in the clefts
of near hills were like purple wine in a glass. Above and beyond they
were bloomed like an ungathered plum. The giant firs looked like orderly
pin-rows of decreasing size for half a mile along the climbing heights.
Before they reached the snow-line they seemed as smooth as the smallest
moss that grows.

The passenger regarded none of these things, but stared thoughtfully
at the platform at his feet. He drew a cigarette from amongst a loose
handful in a waistcoat pocket, struck a lucifer match upon his thigh,
and smoked absently for a minute or so. Then he took the portmanteau
in one hand and the brown bag in the other, and, leaving the railway
platform, crossed the single line, and made a plunging, careless
scramble through a narrow belt of undergrowth. In a minute or less he
came upon a moss-grown way cut through the wood along the side of the
mountain--the old Cariboo Track men used before the days of the railway.
Weighted as he was, he found it warm work here, shut in from the cool
breezes of the mountains and yet exposed to the rays of the mid-day sun.
He wrestled along, however, for some quarter of a mile, and, reaching
a small wooden bridge which crossed a runnel of clear water, set his
burden down and looked about him, mopping his brow with a handkerchief.

'This will do, I fancy,' he said aloud, and then began to undress.

He stripped to socks, drawers, and vest before opening the brown bag,
from which he took an old black felt hat, a shirt of gray patternless
flannel, coat and trousers of gray tweed, a belt of leather, and a
pair of mountain boots. Having attired himself in these things, he lit
another cigarette, and smoked broodingly until it was finished. Then he
walked back to the railside shanty, found the canvas bale, and slowly
and with great exertion lugged it down the slope and along the trail. He
panted and perspired at this task; for though he was sturdily set, and
large of limb and stature, he was obviously unused to that kind of work,
and by the time it was over he was fain to throw himself upon the
moss and rest for a full half-hour. Being rested, he rolled over, and,
stretching out a hand towards the discarded frock-coat, drew from its
inner pocket