“It sure looks so,” replied Jack, “but I tell you what I want to do. Let’s notice just where that goat was lying and where it went, and let’s go over there and see if the rock is right up and down, as it looks. I’d like to see whether a man could go up where that goat went.”
“Yes,” said Joe, “so would I.”
Rising, the boys walked over to the place and had no great difficulty in scrambling up to where the goat had been lying. The tracks which they saw before they got there told them that during the night the goat had been down in the valley feeding, and had gone up to this cave to rest, in the heat of the day. The goat’s bed had been stamped out among the shale where a trickle of water came down from the slate above, and this accounted for a dark patch on the goat’s side that both boys had noticed. It had been lying in the mud.
Then they followed where the goat had gone after leaving its bed. A shelf of rock about a foot wide led along the face of the precipice for thirty or forty yards and was evidently a much-used goat trail. It was pretty narrow for the boys, but by going very gingerly, holding themselves as close as possible to the rocks, they got to the point where the animals had turned off up the hill. Here the water had worn a little course by following a crack in the shale, and there was a ravine, if it could be called that, a foot or two deep and as wide at the top. Moreover, the face of the precipice, instead of being vertical, leaned back a little from the valley. In the ravine and on both sides of it the rocks were much worn by the passage of animals, and to both the boys it seemed clear that this was the regular trail followed by the goats.
“What do you think, Jack?” said Joe. “Could a man climb up there?”
“Well, I tell you what,” said Jack. “If you will hold my gun I’m going to try. I believe anybody can climb up there, but, of course, he wouldn’t want to do it with much of a load on his back.”
“I’ll take the guns,” said Joe, “but don’t you climb too far, and look out that you don’t slip and fall. A man might bump himself pretty badly rolling down here, and it’s quite a drop down to the rocks below.”
“All right,” said Jack, “I’ll look out.”
He gave Joe the gun and started to climb. It was slow work, for in many places the rock was very smooth, and in others, where there was a little knob or protuberance on which to rest hand or foot, it was rotten and broke under his weight. On the whole, however, the going was easier than he had thought, and he went thirty or forty yards to a point where the climbing became easy, and then determined to return. Going back was harder than coming up, for he could not see where to put his feet and was obliged to feel around blindly for footholds. Sometimes, when he had found one and tested it by resting his weight on it, it broke and gave him a little start, but, on the whole, he had little difficulty in getting down to Joe, and together they retraced their steps to the valley.
“Well,” said Joe, “I reckon you had quite a time finding places for your fingers. You cut ’em up considerably.”