"I know well enough that pap's afeard," said he to himself; "but that don't scare me none. If we have to run to save ourselves from the grip of that hant, the hindermost feller is the one who will be in the place of danger, and that'll be pap. With two or three jumps I can put myself so far ahead of him, that he won't never see me again till I get ready to stop and wait for him to come up."
With these thoughts to comfort and encourage him, Dan did not hesitate to lead the way into the gulf.
The traveling was bad enough at the start, and the farther they went into the gorge, the worse it became.
A dozen times or more, in going the first quarter of a mile, were they obliged to climb over or crawl under immense logs which had fallen into the stream from the bluffs above; and when these obstructions had been left behind, foaming cascades, some of them forty feet in height, and which they surmounted by scaling the steep face of the cliffs, took their places.
It was a bad location for a surprise and a retreat, in which the hant would have every advantage of them. Beyond a doubt, he could skip from one boulder to another, and plunge headlong over all the falls that came in his way with perfect immunity. But how would it be with them? Dan asked himself.
It was a wonder that he did not get disheartened, and declare that he would not go any farther.
Silas hoped he would, for he was growing weary, and, in spite of all he could do to prevent it, the disagreeable thought would now and then force itself upon him, that perhaps there wasn't any money up there, after all, and that they were destined to return as empty-handed as they came.
Dan also had some misgivings, but he would not allow them a place in his mind. The belief that there was a fortune of six thousand dollars almost within his grasp, had taken full possession of him; and even if he had not been sure of it, his pride would not permit him to say the first discouraging word.
He was determined that it should come from his father, so that if their expedition failed he could blame him for it. He pressed steadily and patiently onward, without saying a word, and his father followed silently at his heels.
They were now between four and five miles from the lake, and the cliffs on each side were so high, and the bushes and trees that covered them from base to summit were so thick, that twilight always reigned at the bottom of the gorge, let the sun shine never so brightly.