“I believe, by chaowder, they air the strongest things on earth,” declared the boy from Vermont, with a smile. “I tried to poke one out of dad’s old barn once, an’ I thought it would lift the roof, b’gosh!”
Higher and higher the dim path led, zigzagging at times, crossing perilous crevices, which they were forced to leap, dipping into narrow gorges, through which ran icy streams of water from hidden springs.
“I tell you we’re nearing the top!” cried Rattleton, with a burst of enthusiasm.
Merriwell looked at his watch.
“We’ve already been an hour on the way,” he declared. “That starter thought the climb could be made in two hours. We may have to cross that rocky shoulder yet.”
“No, we shall not have to cross it,” said Hodge. “I caught a view of the path from that other slope a while ago, and it swings under the point instead of over it.”
“Hello! I don’t know about this!” cried Merriwell, coming to a full stop at another bend.
The path ended at the foot of a flat rock that rose upward like the wall.
“We’ve got to get up there somehow,” asserted Diamond. “The path will be found again at the top.”
Browning stepped forward.