“But what would they do if they had to land?” asked Spider.
“I guess it’s up to them not to have to land,” Norman answered. “I don’t want the job—but it’s a great work, just the same.”
“Well, I’ll say war isn’t the only risky thing,” put in Bennie. “That guy ought to have a medal for flying over this country every day.”
The plane had disappeared. They pushed on, and soon found themselves at the edge of Grizzly Flats. Right below them the land dropped at an angle of fifty or sixty degrees for a thousand feet, into a deep hole. Directly across this hole it went up again, and up and up and up, for the other side was Mount Jefferson. They were only a mile from the wall of the mountain, but for all they could see, they might as well have been a hundred miles. It looked quite impossible to take horses down that slope. To the right and left were dense woods which the fire hadn’t burned, and these woods were full of snow. The hole below them, called Hunt’s Cove, was carpeted with snow. The great pyramid of Jefferson opposite them was blinding white with snow.
“You wait here,” said Norman, “while I prospect.”
He went off to the south, into the woods, and they saw his horse climbing up over the drifts. Uncle Billy got out his field-glasses, lay on his stomach with his elbows firmly on the ground at the rim of the precipice, and began a long, careful study of the slopes of Mount Jefferson. He was very grave about it, and didn’t say a word, except now and then in a low voice to Dumplin’s father. The three boys wandered along the rim, wondering how Norman was going to find a way down. They couldn’t see any trace of a trail. Wherever the slope was enough off the perpendicular to hold a trail, it was covered with snow.
Norman didn’t return for nearly an hour. When he finally came back, he said, “Well, I think I’ve found a way, if you care to risk it. I’ll risk the horses.”
“As bad as that, eh?” the doctor replied. “Well, if you’ll try it, we will. I think I’ve found a way up the mountain, too, though I don’t like the looks of certain rock slides down that big west snow-field.”
“But why do we go on the big west snow-field?” the boys asked. “Looks as if we could just go right up the southwest shoulder.”
“Look sharp at the summit pinnacle, Bennie,” the doctor said, handing him the glasses.