"All right! But pull hard on the lariat, whenever you feel one of 'em
slipping."

Will attacked the steep wall with vigor, but he had to pull very hard
indeed on the lariats before he could make the horses try it. Finally
they made the effort, and, though slipping and sliding at times, they
crept up the slope. Behind him he heard Boyd, coming with the last two
and speaking in encouraging tones to Selim.

The lariats were a great help, and if Will had not hung on to them so
hard his horses would have fallen. But he was right in his judgment that
the face of the wall was not so steep as it looked. Moreover there were
little shelves and gullies, and the tough clumps of cedar were a
wonderful aid. The horses justified their reputation as climbers, and,
although Will's heart was in his mouth more than once, and his hands and
wrists were cut and bleeding by the pull on the lariats, they did not
fall. Always he heard in front of him the low and cheerful whistling of
the Little Giant, to his mules, which, sure-footed, went on almost
without a slip.

At last they drew out upon the crest of the slope and the three human
beings and the six animals stood there trembling violently from
exertion, the perspiration pouring from them.

"My legs are shaking under me," said the hunter. "I'd never have
believed that it could have been done, and I know it couldn't, but here
we are, anyhow."

"It wuz young William who thought of it, and who dared to speak of it,"
said the Little Giant, "an' so it's his win."

"Right you are, Giant," said the hunter heartily. "When I looked at that
cliff it stood up straight as a wall to me. It was like most other
things, it wasn't as hard when you attacked it as you thought it was,
but I still don't see how we ever got the animals up, and if I didn't
see 'em standing here I wouldn't believe it."

Will, holding to a cedar, looked into the gulf from which they had
climbed. As more of the stars had gone away he could not now see the
bottom. The great defile had all the aspects of a vast and bottomless
abyss, and he felt that their emergence from it was a marvel, a miracle
in which they had been assisted by some greater power. He was assailed
by a weakness and, trembling, he drew back from the ledge. But neither
the hunter nor the Little Giant had seen his momentary collapse and he
was glad, pardonable though it was.

"The ground back o' the cliff seems to be pretty well covered with
forest," said th