“I’ve altered my mind,” said the doctor. “We’ve been travelling for days in low damp levels; now for a change what do you say to trying high ground and seeing if we can climb that mountain? What do you say, Penny?”
“Won’t it make our backs ache a deal?” he said, gazing rather wistfully up at the glittering mountain.
“No doubt, and our legs too,” the doctor replied. “Of course we shall not try to ascend the snowy parts, but to get as far as the shoulder; that will give us a good view of the lay of the country, and it will be something to climb where perhaps human foot has never trod before.”
There was something fascinating enough in this to move Jack Penny into forgetfulness of the possibility of an aching back; and after getting in motion once more, we followed our black bearers for a few miles, and then giving them instructions where to halt—upon a low hill just in front—we struck off to the left, the doctor, Jack Penny, Jimmy, and the dog, and at the end of half an hour began the ascent.
So slight was the slope that we climbed I could hardly believe it possible how fast we had ascended, when at the end of a couple of hours we sat down to rest by a rill of clear intensely cold water that was bubbling amongst the stones. For on peering through a clump of trees I gazed at the most lovely landscape I had seen since I commenced my journey. Far as eye could reach it was one undulating forest of endless shades of green, amidst which, like verdant islands, rose hill and lesser mountain.
I could have stopped and gazed at the scene for hours had not the doctor taken me by the arm.
“Rest and food, my lad,” he said; “and then higher up yet before we settle to our map making and mark out our future course.”
Jimmy was already fast asleep beneath a rock, curled up in imitation of Gyp, while Jack Penny was sitting with his back against a tree, apparently studying his legs as he rubbed his hands up and down them gently, to soften and make more pliable the muscles.
“Tain’t time to go on yet, is it?” he said with a dismal glance up at us.
“No, no, Penny; we’ll have a good rest first,” said the doctor; and Jack uttered a profound sigh of relief.