wall of
a tenement house, barely wide enough to accommodate horse and
rider,--so narrow, indeed, that Haig's left leg was scraped and
bruised by hard contact with the stone. At the bottom of this incline,
his amazement was great at finding a solid platform of rock, on which,
he was able easily to turn and go down another incline underneath the
first. Plainly all this was not the result of accident; the hands of
men had been busy here; and picks and shovels had supplemented the
work of nature. But below the next platform there certainly had been a
secondary slide of rock, for the trail was nowhere discernible, though
it should evidently have slipped down, at a greater angle from the
cliff than before, to a third turning point on a shelf some forty feet
away to the left. Here the debris was loose and fine, and with a
little urging Trixy was induced to take the descent, carrying
quantities of sand and stones with her as she slid and sprawled safely
to the next goal.

Thus they went, sometimes finding the trail plain over solid rock and
hard-packed debris, sometimes slipping and scrambling among stones and
sand, but always drawing nearer and nearer in a zigzag course, now
easy and then difficult, to the green vale below. There were moments
when Trixy was on her knees, moments when she was on her haunches,
moments when she stood swaying above the pit, and moments when all
traces of the trail had vanished. But somewhere below was Sunnysides.

Far down the declivity, so near the valley that Haig was able to look
across into the tops of the tallest pines, they came to what appeared
to be the last of the rocky ledges. Having for some minutes seen
nothing of the outlaw, Haig supposed that the runaway had already
reached the meadow, and was by now on the trail through the forest.
But just as Trixy's shod hoofs struck the platform with a clatter,
Haig caught sight of Sunnysides far out on the narrow shelf. He was
trotting briskly along, for the shelf was smooth and level. But, on a
sudden he stopped, stood a moment with his head thrust forward and
down, and then turned cautiously around, his four feet bunched
together on the narrow footing.

"What's up now?" ejaculated Haig.

And then he saw it. Twice before he had noted where a similar error
might have been made, on other ledges farther up; and he himself had
avoided them only by carefully studying the aspect of the declivity
below him. Sunnysides had undoubtedly lost time t