THE " MAUVAIS PAS." 231 



never would again, as none, but from sheer neces- 

 sity, would ever think of taking advantage of it. 

 In the course of rather more than an hour's sharp 

 ascent we attained a more level surface in the 

 bosom of a thick forest of pine and underwood, 

 fronted, as far as I could guess, from occasional 

 glimpses through gaps and intervals, by a gray dull 

 curtain of bare rock. 



" ' We are approaching the mauvais pas,' said 

 one of the guides. 



'" Is it as rough as this ?' said I, floundering, as 

 I was, through hollows of loose stones and bushes. 



" ' Oh no ; it is as smooth as a floor,' was the reply. 



" ' In a few minutes we shall be on the pas,' said 

 the other, as we began to descend on the eastern 

 declivity of the ridge we had been mounting for 

 the last hour. And then, for the first time, I saw 

 below me the valleys of the Drance spread forth 

 like a map, and that it required but half a dozen 

 steps at most to have cleared every impediment to 

 my descending amongst them, in an infinitely 

 shorter time than I had expended in mounting to 

 the elevated spot from whence I looked down upon 

 them. And then, too, for the first time certain 

 misgivings as to the propriety of going further, 

 and a shrewd guess as to the real nature of the 

 Mauvais Pas, flashed across me, in one of those 

 sudden heart-searching thrills so perfectly defined 



