and
irregular as to require each to assist the other while passing from
point to point. Beyond these a slender cleft, bordered by gnarled
roots of low bushes, promised a somewhat easier and securer passage
toward the summit. Hampton's face became deathly white as they began
the perilous climb, but his hand remained steady, his foot sure, while
the girl moved forward as if remaining unconscious of the presence of
danger, apparently swayed by his dominant will to do whatsoever he bade
her. More than once they tottered on the very brink, held to safety
merely by desperate clutchings at rock or shrub, yet never once did the
man loosen his guarding grasp of his companion. Pressed tightly
against the smooth rock, feeling for every crevice, every slightest
irregularity of surface, making use of creeping tendril or dead branch,
daring death along every inch of the way, these two creepers at last
attained the opening to the little gulley, and sank down, faint and
trembling, their hands bleeding, their clothing sadly torn by the sharp
ledges across which they had pulled their bodies by the sheer strength
of extended arms. Hampton panted heavily from exertion, yet the old
light of cool, resourceful daring had crept back into the gray eyes,
while the stern lines about his lips assumed pleasanter curves. The
girl glanced furtively at him, the long lashes shadowing the expression
of her lowered eyes. In spite of deep prejudice she felt impelled to
like this man; he accomplished things, and he didn't talk.

It was nothing more serious than a hard and toilsome climb after that,
a continuous struggle testing every muscle, straining every sinew,
causing both to sink down again and again, panting and exhausted, no
longer stimulated by imminent peril. The narrow cleft they followed
led somewhat away from the exposed front of the precipice, yet arose
steep and jagged before them, a slender gash through the solid rock, up
which they were often compelled to force their passage; again it became
clogged with masses of debris, dead branches, and dislodged fragments
of stone, across which they were obliged to struggle desperately, while
once they completely halted before a sheer smoothness of rock wall that
appeared impassable. It was bridged finally by a cedar trunk, which
Hampton wrenched from out its rocky foothold, and the two crept
cautiously forward, to emerge where the sunlight rested golden at the
summit. They sank face downwar