left behind to hold a wolf by the ears
when, in the teeth of every remonstrance
he could offer, he found himself, a little
later, starting out in the rear of two adventurous
girls, in quest of that third slab
of a wishing stone--and the breath-racking
Man Killer trail.

But those girls were, to some degree,
seasoned climbers, both,--sure-footed as
venturesome!

Through the dim limelight of fringing
pine woods, across oozing mud-beds, soft
from spring rains and freshets, over a
babbling brook spanned by an elastic
bridge formed of the interlacing roots
of giant trees--where Una found much
delight in bouncing up and down in anticipation
of the magic stone--they stubbornly
held their way, and came at last
to the chaos of rocks crowding a steep
gorge which marked the head of the
lonely Killer trail.

"Noo--I gang first!" said Andrew
-a true-penny still, though the stamp was
[[252]]

p251 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p252w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p253

v?