“I’m going to see if I can’t look around the wall to one side without being seen,” said Raymond, edging forward on one side of the doorway as far as he could go without actually passing beyond the line of the front wall.
“Gee! Sid,” he exclaimed, after taking a look, “the alley that we came up last night is a street with houses opening on it. But I don’t believe there are any more houses as high up as this one. You take a look.” And he made way for Sidney.
“That’s right,” said Sidney, “and if you look sharp you can see the tops of ladders on the line of the alley that runs down the hill. That must be a favorite way of getting into the houses. They are regular cliff-dwellers. I should think we’d have blundered into some of those ladders last night; it’s lucky we didn’t.”
“Some of the doors must open on a level,” said Raymond, “and there must be other alleys that run up through the houses; that’s the way those horses got out there.”
“This is the last house up,” said Sidney, who had shifted to the other side of the doorway and was looking out beyond the house to the right; “there is nothing but mountain out there.”
“This is the first house on a new street, Sid. I guess it was built to rent, and they hadn’t got a tenant yet.”
“I hope the owner won’t come to look at it to-day. If we can stay here till night without being found, Ray, I’ll bet we can get away after dark.”
“I wish we might step outside,” suggested Raymond, “and see how the mountain looks. Maybe we could locate the trail where it leaves the village.”
“That wouldn’t be safe,” replied his brother, “but I’m sure the trail must go out up the valley, and then enter a ravine that narrows up. If we go along the mountain beyond the houses and then drop down to the valley, we can probably find it in the dark.”
“There may be half a dozen trails,” said Raymond, “that run out after firewood, and it will be mighty ticklish business to pick out the main one.”