in the lead discerned it here was a matter Beth could not comprehend.
Some half-confessed meed of admiration, already astir in her nature for
the horseman and his way, increased as he breasted the ascent. How
thoroughly at home--how much a part of it all he appeared, as he rode
upon his pony!

Two hours of steady climbing, with her mare oblique beneath her weight,
and Beth felt an awe in her being. It was wonderful; it was almost
terrible, the fathomless silence, the altitudes, this heretofore
unexperienced intimacy with the mountains' very nakedness! It was
strange altogether, and impressive, the vast unfolding of the world
below, the frequency with which the pathway skirted some dark
precipice--and the apparent unconcern of the man ahead, now so
absolutely master. And still that soul-inviting exhilaration of the
air aroused those ecstacies within her spirit that she had not known
were there.

They were nearing the summit of the pass. It was still a thousand feet
below the snow. To the left a mighty chasm trenched the adamant, its
bottom lowered away to depths of mysterious blue. Its side, above
which the three stout ponies picked their way, was a jagged set of
terraces, over the brink of which the descents were perpendicular.

Rising as if to bar the way, the crowning terrace apparently ended the
trail against all further advance. Here Van finally halted,
dismounted, and waited for the advent of his charges.

Beth rode up uncertainly, her brown eyes closely scrutinizing his face.
It appeared as if they had come to the end of everything--the place for
leaping off into downward space.