234 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



of the torrent, however, he adopted new 

 tactics. Leaping to the rock in mid-channel, 

 he crossed, and then, with great difficulty, 

 clambered along close by the water's edge, 

 well within the splash and the spray. When 

 he had made a couple of hundred yards in 

 this way, he came to a small tributary brook, 

 up which he waded for some eighty or a 

 hundred feet. Then, leaving the brook, he 

 crept stealthily up the bank, through the 

 underbrush, and so back to the valley he 

 had just left, at a point some little distance 

 further down-stream. Thence he ran straight 

 on down the valley at a long easy trot, 

 keeping always, as far as possible, under 

 cover, and swerving from time to time this 

 way or that in order to avoid treading on 

 dry underbrush. His progress, however, was 

 quite audible, for at this point in the venture 

 he was sacrificing secrecy to speed. He 

 had fifteen or sixteen miles to go, his cabin 

 being on the further slope of the great spur 

 called Broken Ridge, and he knew that he 

 could not feel absolutely sure as to the out- 

 come of the enterprise until he should have 

 the little captives secure within his cabin. 



As he threaded his way through the heavy 

 timber of the valley-bottom, a good six or 

 seven miles from the den in Red Rock, he 



