To add to the party’s mounting alarm, the sky was rapidly becoming veiled with black clouds that clung around the mountain peaks, ugly and threatening.
“We’ll have rain pretty soon,” Ken predicted, as he and Jack halted to drop their packs briefly. “That’s all we need to make this day complete!”
Jack was too weary to answer. But, scanning the darkening sky, he nodded.
The day’s climb had been unbelievably hard, and seemingly it was endless. How much longer, he wondered, would he be able to keep going? He was glad Willie and War were safely on their way back to Elks Creek—at least he hoped they were safe and comfortable.
“The pass shouldn’t be much farther off,” Warner said to encourage the Scouts. “We ought to come to it within another half hour.”
“A half hour,” Ken repeated. “Well, let’s get the agony finished as fast as we can!”
Chapter 18
DEAD END
The party wormed its way up Crazy Mountain, gingerly testing the crumbling rock lest it give beneath their feet. Tortuously, they made another five hundred feet. Then Warner, who was in the lead, halted.
“Boys,” he said, “I’m afraid we’re in a pocket. This can’t be the way to the pass.”
No one spoke.