IN QUEST OF RAVENS 47 



contingencies, and with a loud "hullo" I 

 gained their attention. Was this the road to 

 Turtlepond ? I shouted. Yes, they shouted 

 back (a man who could not lift up his voice 

 would be poorly off in that country) ; I was 

 to keep on and on as far as the schoolhouse, 

 just beyond which I must be sure to turn to 

 the right. Very good, said I to myself, here 

 is something definite ; and again I faced the 

 mountain road. 



That was a master stroke of precaution. 

 But for it I might have walked till night, 

 and should never have found myself at 

 Turtlepond. I passed one more house, it is 

 true, but there was no one visible about it, 

 and when at last I reached the log school- 

 house, standing all by itself deep in the 

 woods, it was locked and empty, and the 

 "road to the right" was so obscure, so ut- 

 terly unlike a road, that only for my last 

 man's emphatic warning (how I blessed him 

 for his good sense !) I should have passed 

 it without a suspicion that it was or ever 

 had been a thoroughfare. As it was, I 

 looked at it and wondered. Could that be 

 my course ? There was no sign that horse 

 or wheel had turned that corner for an in- 



