of a wall directly down from the road into a basin of enormous
size, where trees stood here and there in solitary majesty, amid
an area of rock forbidding to the eye and suggestive of sudden and
impassable chasms. It was like circumambulating the sinuous verge
of a canyon; and for the two miles they rode along its edge they
saw no let-up in the steepness on one side or of the almost
equally abrupt rise of towering rock on the other. It was
Reuther's first experience of so precipitous a climb, and under
other circumstances she might have been timid; but in her present
heroic mood, it was all a part of her great adventure, and as such
accepted.

The lawyer eyed her with growing admiration. He had not
miscalculated her pluck.

As they were making a turn to gain the summit, they heard Mr.
Sloan's voice behind them. Drawing in their horses, they greeted
him eagerly when he appeared.

"Were you right? Are we followed?"

"That's as may be. I didn't hear or see anything more. I waited,
but nothing happened, so I came on."

His words were surly and his looks sour; they, therefore, forebore
to question him further, especially as their keenest interest lay
ahead, rather than behind them. They were nearing Tempest Lodge.
As it broke upon their view, perched like an eagle's eyrie on the
crest of a rising peak, they drew rein, and, after a short
consultation, Mr. Sloan wended his way up alone. He was a well-