gulation paths so deep
that he can't get out when he wants. What about the pioneers, who
blaze the new trails? Aren't they needed?"

"Whiles, maybe," Pete answered grinning. "For a' that, they maun tak'
the consequences. Do ye feel it's yere business to break a new road?"

"Certainly not! I'm not a philanthropist and would be quite satisfied
with making things a little easier for myself and my friends, but am
much afraid I haven't succeeded yet. In fact, there's one friend in
England who's very far from grateful. But the question is--Why did I
leave the train?"

"Ye just felt ye had to?"

"I think I did. But why did I feel that?"

Pete chuckled. "There ye have me! This I ken; whiles when I had a
hare or a few paltrig in the lining o' my auld coat and cam' to a slap
in a dyke, I had a kind o' feeling yon was no' the road for me. I
couldna' tell there was a keeper hiding on the ither side; but I didna'
gang. Maybe it's better no' to argue but follow yere heart."

"No," said Foster, "I imagine it's really better to follow your head.
In the meantime, I've had no lunch and think we'll get on."

They came to a wide hollow in the hills where the snow was deep and
loose. The sun was shut out and the frost was keen, while Foster saw
by the lengthening shadow of the pines across the river that the
afternoon was wearing on. A glance at his watch showed that he had
been walking for nearly three hours, but there was no sign of the
hotel. Dark masses of trees ran up from the water to the line of
summer snow, and no roof or curl of smoke broke their somber monotony.
High above, the peaks glittered with a steely brightness that seemed to
intensify the cold.

Their breath hung about them as they plodded on, but at length, when
they came to the middle of the bend, where the hills curved out again,
there was a break and they stopped at the end of a bridge. The low sun
shone into the gap, which was profoundly deep and majestically
beautiful. On its farther side, tremendous crags held up the snow,
which trickled down their faces in thin gray streaks and stretched back
above, steeped in soft blue shadow. On Foster's side, giant pines
glimmered a bright green in the warm light, running up to a glittering
slope that ended in two rugged peaks, and a river that sprang from a
wrinkled glacier foamed through the dusky gorge. Where a small
clearing had been cut in the forest, steep red roofs stood out in
harmonious cont