nutely studded with white specks. "Guess
a peek at it won't hurt. Seems to me it's about ten or twelve feet up.
Guess ther' ain't need for two of us climbin' that way. You best wait
right here, an' I'll git around again after a while."

The Padre surveyed the patch, and his eyes twinkled.

"Ten or twelve feet?" he said doubtfully. "Twenty-five."

"May be."

"You think it's----?"

Buck laughed lightly.

"Can't say what it is--from here."

The other sat down on an adjacent rock.

"Get right ahead. I'll wait."

Buck hurried away, and for some moments the Padre watched his slim
figure, as, scrambling, stumbling, clinging, he made his way to where
the real climb was to begin. Nor was it until he saw the tall figure
halt under an overhanging rock, which seemed to jut right out over his
head, and look up for the course he must take in the final climb, that
Buck's actual danger came home to the onlooker. He was very little
more given to realizing personal danger than Buck himself, but now a
sudden apprehension for the climber gripped him sharply.

He stirred uneasily as he saw the strong hands reach up and clutch the
jutting facets. He even opened his mouth to offer a warning as he saw
the heavily-booted feet mount to their first foothold. But he
refrained. He realized it might be disconcerting. A few breathless
moments passed as Buck mounted foot by foot. Then came the thing the
Padre dreaded. The youngster's hold broke, and a rock hurtled by him
from under his hand and very nearly dislodged him altogether.

In an instant the Padre was on his feet with the useless intention of
going to his aid, but, even as he stood up, his own feet shot from
under him, and he fell back heavily upon the rock from which he had
just risen.

With an impatient exclamation he looked down to discover the cause of
his mishap. There it lay, a loose stone of yellowish hue. He stooped
to remove it, and, in a moment, his irritation was forgotten. In a
moment everything else was forgotten. Buck was forgotten. The peril of
the hill. The cliff itself. For the moment he was lifted out of
himself. Years had passed away, his years of life in those hills. And
something of the romantic dreams of his early youth thrilled him once
again.

He stood up bearing the cause of his mishap clasped in his two hands
and stared down at it. Then, after a long while, he looked up at the
climbing man. He stood there quite still, watching his movements with
uns