d upon
the last knob of rock.

"Call out if we can help any, Step Hen," was what Davy said, as they
saw the last of their companion's head just about to vanish, where the
first inward dip to the precipice occurred.

"Sure I will, and just you remember our signal code, Davy. I may have
to use it if I get caught tight in a crack, and can't break away
nohow. Good-bye, be good to yourselves, now, and don't go to believin'
that there's any chance of me losing my grip."

Then he vanished from their sight. A dreadful clatter of falling
stones gave the two scouts still above a case of the "trembles"
immediately afterwards, and Davy called at the top of his voice:

"I say, Step Hen!"

"All right;" welled up from somewhere below them; "did that on purpose
to test a stepping place. Ketch a weasel asleep, before you get me to
stand on a loose place, why, it's as easy as fallin' off a log, this
is."

CHAPTER XV.

A FIERCE FIGHT WITH EAGLES.

But although Step Hen spoke so flippantly, he was far from being as
confident as he pretended. In fact, as he proceeded downward, he found
his task getting more and more difficult.

One thing that bothered him was the getting up again. He just felt sure
that he would not be able to accomplish it; but then, if it came to the
worst, doubtless the balance of the descent was no harder to manage than
this; and after first sending his big-horn down, he might pick his own
way after it, and the others could follow as best they saw fit.

Step Hen was a self-reliant boy, at any rate; sometimes the scoutmaster
feared too much so. And since he had said he was going to get that game,
and was already part way down the face of the rocky wall, there was
nothing to be done but keep right along, which he proceeded to do.

He could not get the slightest glimpse of his comrades. They were
somewhere up above him; but just as the guide had declared, the face
of the wall fell away in places, and this kept taking him further
beyond their range of vision constantly.

Whenever he could do so without imperiling his support, Step Hen would
crook his neck, and look downward, in the hope of seeing where the
sheep lay. He could not help thinking how much easier this effort
would come for him, if a kindly Nature had given him the extensive
neck that Giraffe possessed.

"There it is!" he exclaimed, joyfully, as his anxious eyes fell upon
an object just a short distance below, and which he knew must be t