but it was the steepest thing they had tackled yet, nonetheless, and it kept them so busy dropping down the thousand feet or more to the ravine floor that they could barely take time to glance at the great, white mass of snow packed into the semi-shadow under the head wall.
"Say, we are making some time, though!" Peanut panted, as he dropped his own length from one rock to the next.
"Faster'n you'd make coming back," laughed Lou.
The path soon dropped them into scrub spruce, which had climbed up the ravine side to meet them, and this stiff spruce grew taller and taller as they descended, till in less than fifteen minutes they were once more—for the first time since leaving the side of Clinton—in the woods. At the bottom of the cliff the path leveled out, crossed a brook twice, and brought them suddenly into another trail, leading up into the head of the ravine. Almost opposite was a sign pointing down another path to the Appalachian Mountain Club camp.
"We'll leave our stuff there at the camp," said Mr. Rogers, "and go see the snow arch before lunch, eh?"
"You bet!" the boys cried.
It was only a few minutes after ten. They had started so early from the summit of Washington that they still had the better part of the day before them. A few steps brought them to the camp, which was a
