“I don’t think I should like to be the post rider on this trail,” decided Ned, gazing wide-eyed at the abyss.
“Especially on a dark night,” added Tad.
“Or any other kind of a night,” piped the fat boy.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” answered Walter. “On a dark night you couldn’t see the gorge. What we don’t know doesn’t hurt us, eh?”
62“There is some logic in that,” agreed the Professor.
Professor Zepplin was leading the way, dragging one mule after him at the end of a rope. Then came Ned with the second pack mule, followed by Tad and the other two boys. Butler wanted to follow behind the mules so as to keep watch of them, he not feeling any too great confidence in the worn-out old animals.
The Professor halted at a turning-out place, where the rocks had been worn out by the wash of a mountain stream sufficiently wide to enable two horses to meet and pass by a tight pinch.
“Young gentlemen, this is a wonderful country,” he said.
“It’s kind of hilly,” admitted Stacy.
“In the Indian tongue, Alaska means ‘the great country,’” added the Professor.