ut that; only that I have
seen no sign of any. Say when you want to turn back."

"All right. Oh! look here!"

The chasm had made another turn, and as Saxe spoke he climbed on a
little farther, so as to make room for his companion to join him among
the fragments of broken rock upon which he stood. And there, right
before them, the walls seemed to run together in the side of a black
mass of rock, which formed the base of a snowy peak, one which they
recognised as having often seen, and now looking the more brilliant in
contrast with the black rock from which it rose.

"We could get there in another quarter of an hour," said Saxe.

"Yes; but what good shall we do when we get there?" replied Dale. "You
see that the rocks to right and left are not to be scaled, or that this
place ends in a mere gash or split."

"But you never know till you get close up," said Saxe. "The rocks fold
over one another; so that we may after all find a way out and over the
mountain."

"Well, if you are not too tired we'll try. This stream must come from
somewhere. Hear it?"

"Yes, I can hear," said Saxe, as he listened to the strange musical
gurgle of running waters somewhere far down below the blocks which had
fallen from the sides of the chasm.

He started on climbing from stone to stone--some planted solidly, others
so nearly poised that they rocked beneath his feet.

"One good thing," he cried breathlessly: "you can't fall any lower. How
narrow the place is!"

It grew narrower still before they reached the spot where the place
ended in the cleft in the face of the black rock; but, just as the boy
had said, there was a fold of the chasm, quite a knife-edge of stone
round, and beyond which the stream came gurgling down, and apparently
going directly upward to the right.

"There!" cried Saxe. "What did I tell you? This is the way up. Shall
I go on?"

"Yes, a little way; but I did not reckon on these difficulties. We will
only explore a little to-day. To-morrow we can come straight here
earlier, and take our time."

The place was narrower than ever now, and the rocks rose
perpendicularly, so high that the place was almost in twilight. It was
nearly a repetition of the chasm up which they had come, save that one
side was the mountain itself, the other a portion split off.

The mountain side proving the easier, as the stones in the bottom grew
more massive and difficult to climb, the boy took to the slope, and made
s