stretch did not take a
straight course, but assumed the form of an immense, partial circle.
When half way around, the plodders came in sight of a huge rent in the
distant mountain wall, through which the sky showed nearly from the
zenith to the horizon. In this immense V-shaped space shone the moon
nearly at its full, and without a rift or fleck of cloud in front of
its face.

A flood of light streamed through and between the encompassing peaks,
tinging the men and animals with its fleecy veil, as if some of the
snow from the crests had been sprinkled over them. On their left, the
craggy wall sloped almost vertically downward, the projecting masses
of rock displaying the same, fairy-like covering, ending in a vast,
yawning pit of night and blackness, into whose awful depth the human
eye could not penetrate.

On the right, the mass of stone, rock and boulder, rugged, broken and
tumbled together, as if flung about by giants in sport, towered beyond
the vision's reach, the caverns, abysses and hollows made the blacker
and more impenetrable by the moonlight glinting against the protruding
masses.

It was as if a party of Titans had run their chisels along the flinty
face of the mountain from the rear, gouging out the stone, with less
and less persistency, until they reached the spot where the men and
animals were creeping forward, when the dulled tools scarcely made an
impression sufficient to support the hesitating feet.

Captain Dawson was but a few paces to the rear of Vose Adams's mule,
whose surety of step he admired and tried to imitate.

"Training seems able to accomplish anything," reflected the captain;
"I remember how Lieutenant Russell and I stopped on the further edge
of this infernal place when we reached it one forenoon and spent
several hours trying to find a safer path. It kept us in a tremor
until we were across. Had any one told me that on the next journey I
should try it in the night, I would have believed him crazy, but," he
grimly added, "I would have thought the same, if I had been told that
a necessity like this would compel us to do so."

The bridle rein was looped over his elbow, which extended behind him,
the same hand grasping his rifle, so that he advanced partly sideways
over the treacherous trail. He attempted to do nothing but look after
his own footsteps. Sometimes, when it was a little harder to pull the
rein, he slackened his pace. It would not do to hurry the animal,
since a sligh