“Ha, ha!” laughed the doctor. “That is always the way. The cliff was right, but you were wrong. The cliff did not turn away from you, but you turned away from the cliff. It was all that fatal tendency to turn to the right. Now, I was on my guard; but you, who gave me that warning, forgot all about it yourself. But come, it won’t do to stand here all night talking. We are now about half way over the mountain. We ought soon to begin to descend towards Cornwallis. There’s a man who lives on this road that I’m acquainted with,—a Mr. Smalley,—and his house can’t be very far away. We can get something to eat there at least, and accommodations for the night. But I prefer getting wagons and driving over to where we left our own conveyances. However, we can see about that when we get to Smalley’s.”
The whole party now walked on, and the boys mingled with one another, questioning each other about the journey. The doctor’s party had suffered fearfully. They were all foot-sore, and their clothes were badly torn. They had gone through swamps and brushwood, and over stones and fallen trees. They were fearfully fatigued, and were now only sustained by the prospect of soon reaching the end of their journey. All this was a great puzzle to Bruce’s party, who were not nearly so fatigued; and they couldn’t understand how they could have gone so much farther than the doctor’s party without feeling so worn out as their friends were. They attributed this, however, first to the fact that the doctor had gone in one perfectly straight course, regardless of obstacles; and secondly, to the other fact, that their journey had been beguiled by Pat’s adventure with the porcupine, which first afforded them amusement, and afterwards, when he was lost, created such an excitement that they forgot their toils.
After walking some distance farther, the road, to their great delight, began to descend.
“We’re going down to Cornwallis,” said the doctor, joyously. “We’re very much farther on than I supposed. We are evidently far beyond Smalley’s. I see how it is. In my anxiety to avoid swerving to the right, I have fallen, as you said, Bruce, into the opposite extreme, and have actually swerved to the left. That accounts for the immense length of our journey. Well, now that it’s over, I’m glad that it happened so. It brings us all the nearer to our destination. At the foot of the hill lives Mr. Atkins, who will give us far better accommodation than Smalley. One mile more, boys, only one mile, and then we’ll have rest.”
The doctor’s encouraging words cheered all the boys, and the fact that they were actually descending the hill, and were thus every moment drawing nearer to their destination, had an additional influence in giving them fresh energy.
So they descended farther and farther, and now kept on the lookout more vigilantly than ever for the welcome lights of some houses.
“It’s a long descent,” said the doctor, “but every step is bringing us nearer to Atkins’s; so keep your courage up, boys, for we’ll soon be there now.”
On they went, and descended lower and lower, till at last they seemed to have reached the plain, for the road became level, and went on straight, without any more windings.
At length there appeared a faint light not far away on the left.
“That must be Atkins’s,” said the doctor. “But how very thick the fog is even here! I never knew it so thick in Cornwallis. And the air is just like that of the sea-shore. It is very seldom that it is so on this side of the mountain.”