Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/22

 the jagged mass of one big enough to be called a mountain. The nearer slopes were covered with heavy woods of pine and birch, the dense  trees broken here and there by great masses of  rock, black, gray or, more often, strange clear  shades of red.

“Red Lake derives its name,” so the atlas had stated in its matter-of-fact fashion, “from the  peculiar color of the jasper rock that appears in  such quantity along its shores.”

Hugh had never seen anything quite like that clear vermilion shade that glowed dully against  the black-green of the pines. Across the slope of the nearest hill, showing clear like a clean-cut  scar, there stretched a steep white road that  wound sharply up to the summit and disappeared. He began to feel vaguely that although the town attracted him little, the road might lead to something of greater promise.

There were some men lounging before the door of the hotel when he reached it, miners or lumberjacks wearing high boots and mackinaw coats. They were talking in low tones and eyeing Hugh