“I think,” said Sidney, “that if we can get up to the ridge back of this cliff we can follow that up and the snow won’t be so deep.
“Well, I don’t want to be a croaker, Sid, but what shall we do if we can’t find the road down the other side?”
“I think when we get to the top that we’ll find there is no snow on the other side, or maybe just a little near the summit. It’s too early in the season for the snow to go very far down the south side of the range.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Raymond. “That will be fine; I’m tired of snow.”
“We’ll make quick time,” said Sidney, “down the south side. As I remember the map it’s a very short slope, compared with this side.”
“Gee!” said Raymond, “I’ll be glad of that. I want to get where I can eat a square meal and have all the coffee I want. We haven’t had a smell of coffee since we left Petrovsk.”
“I hope, when we reach Tiflis,” said Sidney, “that we can send a cable to mother. I don’t know whether everything around the Black Sea will be all war or not.”
“There’s one sure thing,” said Raymond; “Russia can’t send any troops over these mountains.”
“Not by this trail, I guess,” said Sidney with a laugh, “but she can send them up through the Dariel Pass. You know they told us at Petrovsk that troops were going north that way then.”
“That was ages ago,” said Raymond. “The war may have been ended long before now.”