“Well, if ye don’t drink gin-sling or cocktail,” said Stiff, “you’re mighty hard on the tea.”
“True for ye, Stiff, it was the fav’rite tipple o’ me owld mother, an’ I’m fond of it on that score, not to mention other raisins of a private natur’.”
“Couldn’t ye make these reasons public?” said Walter.
“Unpossible!” said Larry, with much gravity, as he helped himself to another can of tea.
“Come, time’s up,” said Robin abruptly, as he rose to put on his snow-shoes.
Larry swallowed the tea at a draught, the others rose promptly, and in a few minutes more they were again on the march.
Towards noon they issued out of the woods upon a wide undulating country, which extended, as far as the eye could see, to faint blue mountains in the distance. This region was varied in character and extremely beautiful. The undulations of the land resembled in some places the waves of the sea. In other places there were clumps of trees like islets. Elsewhere there were hollows in which lakelets and ponds evidently existed, but the deep snow covered all these with a uniform carpet. In some parts the ground was irregular and broken by miniature hills, where there were numerous abrupt and high precipices.
The party were approaching one of the latter in the afternoon, when Robin suddenly paused and pointed to a projecting ledge on the face of one of the cliffs.
“What would ye say yonder objic’ was?” he inquired of Slugs.
The hunter shaded his eyes with his hand, and remained silent for a few seconds.