66 STALKS ABROAD 



" I daresay ! " I answered carelessly. 



" He'd a grand head ! " mused Henry. 



" Oh ! hang it all ; I'll come ! " said I, and I did, 

 though I knew that the Red Gods were against me 

 in this. 



How the sensations of that last morning come 

 back to me as I sat resting on the ridge behind the 

 camp, knowing that it was my last day, and that if 

 I failed then he would be gone for ever. From the 

 great flat waste of clouds which eddied below us 

 rose scattered hilltops flecked with snow, like islets 

 studding an inland sea. The flaming sun pencilled 

 their farthermost ridges with a thread of gold, and 

 where an open gap in the barrier wall allowed him, 

 bathed the mists in refulgent glory. It seemed fanci- 

 fully unreal, and I half waited to see some great 

 galleon, with flashing oars and silken sail bellying 

 before the gentle breeze, come sailing round a low- 

 lying point with flying pennons, in search of El 

 Dorado or some other land of which I did but 

 dream. Beyond the distant thread of gold shone 

 a sky of the palest blue, which deepened in the 

 vault above to a transparent azure. A few small 

 fleecy clouds floated serenely in the heavens, whilst 

 their earthbound fellows rolled sluggishly about some 

 beetling crag, as the encroaching tide about a lonely 

 point. 



It was a glorious morning ; a straggler from the 

 golden age, when the world was young, and men 

 took less thought about the morrow and what it 



