Audrey

An hour before dusk found the company that had dined in the valley making

their way up the dry bed of a stream, through a gorge which cleft a line

of precipitous hills. On either hand the bank rose steeply, giving no

footing for man or beast. The road was a difficult one; for here a tall,

fern-crowned rock left but a narrow passage between itself and the shaggy

hillside, and there smooth and slippery ledges, mounting one above the

other, spanned the way. In places, too, the drought had left pools of

dark, still water, difficult to avoid, and not infrequently the entire

party must come to a halt while the axemen cleared from the path a fallen

birch or hemlock. Every man was afoot, none caring to risk a fall upon the

rocks or into the black, cold water of the pools. The hoofs of the horses

and the spurs of the men clanked against the stones; now and then one of

the heavily laden packhorses stumbled and was sworn at, and once a warning

rattle, issuing from a rank growth of fern on the hillside, caused a

momentary commotion. There was no more laughter, or whistling, or calling

from the van to the rear guard. The way was arduous, and every man must

watch his footsteps; moreover, the last rays of the sun were gilding the

hilltops above them, and the level that should form their camping-place

must be reached before the falling of the night.

The sunlight had all but faded from the heights, when one of the company,

stumbling over a round and mossy rock, measured his length upon the

ground, amid his own oaths at his mishap, and the exclamations of the man

immediately in his rear, whose progress he had thus unceremoniously

blocked. The horse of the fallen man, startled by the dragging at the

reins, reared and plunged, and in a moment the entire column was in

disorder. When the frightened animals were at last quieted, and the line

re-formed, the Governor called out to know who it was that had fallen, and

whether any damage had been suffered.

"It was Mr. Haward, sir!" cried two or three; and presently the injured

gentleman himself, limping painfully, and with one side of his fine green

coat all stained by reason of contact with a bit of muddy ground, appeared

before his Excellency.

"I have had a cursed mishap,--saving your presence, sir," he explained.

"The right ankle is, I fear, badly sprained. The pain, is exquisite, and I

know not how I am to climb mountains."

The Governor uttered an exclamation of concern: "Unfortunate! Dr. Robinson

must look to the hurt at once."

"Your Excellency forgets my dispute with Dr. Robinson as to the dose of

Jesuit bark for my servant," said the sufferer blandly. "Were I in

extremis I should not apply to him for relief."