126 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
down the other side, across the sunny fields of the 
table-land hamlet which lies up there behind the 
dome of the big mountain, and, avoiding the few 
scattered farms, into the dense woods on the far- 
ther side. These, however, were no ordinary 
dogs, she began to realize. ‘They weren’t mere 
stray hunters; they were trained, hard-working 
hounds. Ever they came baying steadily on her 
trail, not getting dangerously close yet, but cer- 
tainly not dropping behind. Lucy rested. She 
was weary, and her paw hurt her, for it wasn’t 
yet completely healed, nor the sickness all gone 
from her. Her rest let the dogs up too close for 
comfort. She plunged quickly down the cliffs 
ahead of her, where they drop into New York 
State, the dogs now in full cry behind, for one of 
them had caught sight of her. 
Lucy was going it blind now—she was in a 
spot where she had never been before. Leaping 
along in a deep gorge beside a brook, the dogs 
almost at her heels, she suddenly found herself 
at the jumping-off place. The brook simply slid 
over a lip of rock and plunged straight down 
sixty feet! There was no turning back, for the 
