I-IX

At noon, on the day following, he stood on
the top of Cheap Mountain, gazing back
into the deep, verdant cleft of Greenstream.
From Cheap the reason for its name was clear --
it flowed now direct, now turning, in a vivid green
stream along the bases of its mountainous ranges; it
flowed tranquil and dark and smooth between banks
of tangled saplings, matted, multifarious underbrush,
towering, venerable trees. It slipped like a
river, bearing upon its balmy surface the promise of
asylum, of sleep, of plenty, through the primitive,
ruthless forest, which in turn pressed upon it everywhere
the menace of its oblivion, its fierce, strangling
life.

He saw below him stretches of the steep, rocky
trail by which he had mounted with the mounting
sun; both had now reached the zenith of their day's
journey; from there he would sink into the shadow,
the secretiveness, of night... Greenstream village
lay twenty-eight miles behind; it was seventeen
more to Sprucesap: he hurried forward.

In his pocket rested not the thirty dollars, to which

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v?