The climbing grew more difficult, and they were finally halted,
in a narrow cleft, by a drift-jam.
"You wait here," Billy directed, and, lying flat, squirmed on
through crashing brush.
Saxon waited till all sound had died away. She waited ten minutes
longer, then followed by the way Billy had broken. Where the bed
of the canyon became impossible, she came upon what she was sure
was a deer path that skirted the steep side and was a tunnel
through the close greenery. She caught a glimpse of the
overhanging spruce, almost above her head on the opposite side,
and emerged on a pool of clear water in a clay-like basin. This
basin was of recent origin, having been formed by a slide of
earth and trees. Across the pool arose an almost sheer wall of
white. She recognized it for what it was, and looked about for
Billy. She heard him whistle, and looked up. Two hundred feet
above, at the perilous top of the white wall, he was holding on
to a tree trunk. The overhanging spruce was nearby.
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