reversed. "My word!" he added sourly,
"this is na trail--juist a scratch on the
mountainside--an' the muckle rocks
they're a flail for beating the breath out
of a puir body."

"What--what do I care if they
shouldn't leave me a pinch if only I could
find something--even a few more rags of
the parachute!" gasped Pemrose, in stifled
tones of passion, as she climbed, hurry-skurry,
over a piled capsheaf of bowlders.

Indeed, that battling breath was at a
low ebb in all three when, following the
tangled skein of a sort of trail which the
feet of daring climbers had beaten, here
and there, amid the rocks, they reached
in due time the third slab which, like
the invisible running water in Tory Cave,
was supposed to bring "piping times"
of luck to whoever should brave the difficulties
of the wild pass, to stand on it
and wish.

"Oh--oh! there it is, at last," cried
Una, her hand to her breathless side, " a
[[253]]

p252 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p253w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p254

v?