"
"Oh, I didn't wait for them! I was half beside myself."
"Evidently," she replied, a little coolly.
Her tone made him falter in his purpose, and when at last they reached
Indian Head, she was so resolutely impersonal in her talk, and had so
much to say about the history and the legends of the region of
which she had read, that he felt that she was in no mood for what he
intended to say. As the time passed he grew nervously apprehensive
over his project, and at last they started on their return with his
plan unfulfilled. They agreed to try a path to their left, which was
scarcely distinguishable, and it soon appeared to end at a point that
sloped almost perpendicularly to a wild gorge that ran up between the
hills.
"That must be what is down on the map as Tamper Clove," said Madge;
"and do you know, some think that it was up that valley Irving made
poor Rip carry the heavy keg? Oh, I wish we could get down into it and
go back that way!"
"Let me explore;" and he began swinging himself down by the aid of
saplings and smaller growth. "Some one has passed here recently," he
called back, "for trees are freshly blazed and branches broken. Yes,"
he cried, a moment later; "here is a well-defined path leading up the
clove toward the hotel.
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