Scarfe, have bagged the pony trap and Appleby,
and now you're looking as if you'd just been hung."

"What are you in the blues about?" said Jeffreys, brightening up a bit.

"Oh, everything. It's so slow here, nothing to do. Can't play games
all day, and you won't let me smoke, and the library hasn't a single
story worth reading, and it's beastly cold; and upon my word," said the
boy, who was genuinely miserable, "I'd as soon go and sit on the top of
Wild Pike as fool about here."

"The best thing you could do--I'll go and sit with you," said Jeffreys.

"What!" said the boy, "do you mean it? Will you come?"

"Of course I will; I have nothing special to do to-day, and I've never
been up a mountain in winter before."

"We shall get a splendid view. Sure it won't grind you?" said the boy,
who, under Scarfe's influence, had come to look upon every exertion as a
thing to be shirked.

"My dear fellow, I shall enjoy it, especially with you," said Jeffreys.

"Hurrah--bring Julius too--and I'll get some grub to take. It's only
ten now, and it's not dark till after four, so we have a good six
hours."

A few minutes later they started, Percy leaving word for his mother that
they were going for a long tramp, and would be back for dinner.

It was a perfect winter's day. The air was keen and frosty and promised
magnificent views. The wind was not strong enough to be benumbing, and
the sun overhead was cheering and now and then even warm.

"Hadn't we better take overcoats, in case it comes on cold at the top?"
said Jeffreys as they were starting.

"Oh no--they're a frightful grind to carry, and we are sure to be baked
before we get up."

"I think I will take mine," said Jeffreys, "and it will be no bother to
carry yours."

Percy protested, but, luckily for them, Jeffreys carried his point.

Wild Pike was one of those mountains, not uncommon in that district,
which are approached from the back by a long gradual slope, but on the
front present a scooped-out precipitous face, as if broken in half on
that side.

It was this steeper side which faced Wildtree, and Percy would have
scorned to approach the monster from any other quarter. From where they
stood the narrow path zigzagged for about one thousand feet onto one of
the upper shoulders of the mountain. Following this, the track brought
them to what seemed like the basin of some old volcano hollowed out
under the summit.

It was necessary to cross this depr