CONCLUSION.
An arduous tramp of a half hour brought the professor and his party to the base of the steep incline that led to their objective point. Here they halted a moment for a rest and looked about them. The side of the cliff, which was two or three hundred feet in height, was heavily wooded and ran upward at an acute angle, but with several ledges that stretched across the face so that an ascent was possible, but only at the expense of a considerable journey. Steady effort, going from one ledge to another, climbing through crevices and around projecting barriers finally brought them to the summit. Here, on a small open space, they found the remains of the fire which had been the source of the column of smoke, the embers, notwithstanding the wetting they had had, still giving out a little vapor.
“Well, boys, we can go no higher except by the aid of the branches of the trees.”
“I was considering which tree to climb,” responded Tom. “That one on the point is the highest, but the one nearer us we climbed before and is the easiest to get up.”
“Let it be the highest,” determined the professor.
It was not an easy task they had undertaken, as the trees were several feet in diameter, without a branch for eighteen or twenty feet from the base; but the boys, with the aid of Berwick and the professor, by dint of clinging like flies to each little projection in the trunk, managed to get a hold on the lower branches and pull themselves up into the trees; then by degrees to the highest point that could safely be reached.
“Phew,” said Tom, who was the first to get to a place where he could look off over the surrounding country, “what do you think of that?”
“What is it?” panted Jo.
“Look there!” answered Tom. “Looks as though we had our work cut out for us.”