sunshine upon them called to him. One would have hazarded that they were
familiar from oft-repeated visits, and that among his plans to the
contrary a desire to climb them insisted. He glanced at the sun again,
shook his head, and took the first step slantingly downward along the
slope. But only once more to grow as still as the big trees about him.
Slowly he drew back into the shadows to watch and not be seen.

For abruptly two figures had appeared upon the rocky head of the
mountain across the lake. They had come up from the further side, and
when he saw them first stood clear-cut against the sky. They might have
been hunters since each carried a rifle. And yet the watcher's brows
gathered in a frown and his eyes glinted angrily.

The two figures separated, one going along the crest of the ridge, the
other climbing downward cautiously until he stood at the edge of the
cliffs. He craned his body to look down as though seeking a way to the
lake; he straightened and stared for a long time toward the snow tops of
the more distant altitudes. The sun lay in pools all about him, and
across the distance separating him and his companion from the man who
watched them so intently, his gestures could be followed readily. He
turned and must have said something to his companion, who leaped down
from a boulder and came to his side. The second man towered over him,
head and shoulder. This the eyes upon the other slope were quick to
note; they cleared briefly as though with a new understanding, only to
grow harder than before.

They talked together, and yet the only sound to carry across the lake
and meadow was the rush of air through innumerable tree-tops. The blue
water glinted softly under the westering sun; in the blue void of the
sky the hawk wheeled, silent and graceful and watchful. The smaller man