SAWYER'S PEAK 31 



''We've got our work cut out for us here," lie re- 

 marked casually. "Look at that canyon down there. 

 Isn't it a corker 1" 



My exalted mood vanished as completely as died 

 the light on the distant peaks. I gazed on the scene 

 with new eyes. The spectacle that a moment before 

 had been inspiring, full of a vague, beautiful prom- 

 ise, was gone. In its place loomed a land of menace 

 and mystery. The darkening hills seemed to frown 

 ominously, the forest, gloomy and vast, to hold dire 

 threats, the rocky canyons to hide dark secrets, 

 grimly guarded from profanation by man. For a 

 moment a feeling of awe akin to fear swept over me. 

 I felt small and quite insignificant. For the first 

 and only time during the season I wished heartily 

 that I were well out of the whole business. 



Frazer glanced at me and laughed. 



"Don't get scared," he said; "you'll live through 

 it. Everybody who starts on reconnaissance over- 

 estimates the difficulties. You mustn't let your im- 

 agination run away with you. One thing above all 

 you've got to remember: don't let any little bit of 

 striking scenery get your goat 'til you come to it. 

 You'll often see ahead what appears to be a straight- 

 away cliff, but when you get there it may turn out 

 to be an easy slope. Besides, if you can't manage to 

 get over a bluff or peak you can offset a few chains 

 and go round it." 



This sounded all right but I didn't feel much bet- 



