Page 10 (1/2)

An hour before dusk found the co

their way up the dry bed of a streae which cleft a line

of precipitous hills On either hand the bank rose steeply, giving no

footing for man or beast The road was a difficult one; for here a tall,

fern-crowned rock left but a narrow passage between itself and the shaggy

hillside, and there s one above the

other, spanned the way In places, too, the drought had left pools of

dark, still water, difficult to avoid, and not infrequently the entire

party must come to a halt while the axemen cleared from the path a fallen

birch or he to risk a fall upon the

rocks or into the black, cold water of the pools The hoofs of the horses

and the spurs of the ainst the stones; now and then one of

the heavily laden packhorses stu frorowth of fern on the hillside, caused a

, or calling

frouard The as arduous, and every man must

watch his footsteps;the