To do this, it was necessary to edge on around the mountainside until he came to a rough, gradual section. Then climbing became comparatively easy.
Once, when he was but a third of the way up, he glanced back over his shoulder to the ground below and almost lost his balance. But he caught himself with a quick motion, and after resting a moment from the terrific strain, continued the climb. That glance to the ground had revealed that he was several hundred feet up. How easy it would be to slip backwards!
Another hundred feet and he found himself on a wide shelf, which seemed to encircle the peak. A short rest was taken here, and in the end he felt much better for it.
“Wonder if I can get down from here?” the boy mused, again taking up the climb. “I’ll find some way, though,” was his conclusion.
For a few more hundred feet the way was very gradual, with many rocks of different sizes affording footholds. But as he came to a sharp break in the side of the mountain, the lofty pointed crag shaped up straighter and more jagged. Once he thought he had gone as far as possible, but finally managed to get to the brink of a slab that had threatened to hinder his progress.
“On to the top,” he thought, bringing his foot up another notch with difficulty.
At last, panting and perspiring, he ascended the last stretch and took his position on the flat surface of a platform-like formation. Then he turned to look below.
A cry of astonishment came from his lips as he saw that he was hundreds and hundreds of feet in the air. Far, far below, he could dimly make out his dromedary by the outermost side of the mountain. The beast seemed no larger than an ant.
“I wonder if Dad and the others can be seen,” he mused, turning his gaze in the opposite direction.
“Yes!” he muttered excitedly. “There they are.”