Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/111

 He saw a great mass of rock rising among the trees not a quarter of a mile away and decided  that he had better climb to the top of it and get  his bearings before going any further. It was a hard scramble through the thickets and up the  side of the giant red bowlder, but Hugh accomplished it in ever increasing haste. He wished to assure himself as quickly as possible that all  his calculations were correct. He was panting with hurry and excitement when he came out upon the top of the rock and turned his face toward where Jasper Peak should be.

Somehow it is rather a terrible thing to look for so reliable a landmark as a mountain or a  lake and not to find it.

“They must be there, they must be there,” he kept repeating half aloud; but, no, there was nothing to be seen but hills and hills, endless miles of  green in every direction and all utterly unfamiliar. For a full minute Hugh stood gaping, before there came over him the sickening knowledge that he was lost.

He had thought the forest beautiful on his