Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/82

 workman had ceased his labors so suddenly as to have even left his tools. Hugh had to stand and look for some minutes before he could distinguish the narrow trail threading its way off  among the trees, the path that he must now follow.

Down the hillside it led him, over great tree trunks, under low-hanging branches, through  thickets that seemed almost impenetrable. The noonday sun began to feel hot, even among the  trees, and the air seemed close and heavy as he  progressed further and further into the valley. It was a great relief to hear suddenly the cool patter of what sounded like falling water and a  great disappointment to find that it came only  from a grove of quaking aspen trees where the  wind among the leaves made just the sound of  rain. Once past these, however, the going was a little easier, for on the next hill the birches and  poplars gave way to solid pine forest and the  trail led upward between black trunks and over  a carpet of fallen needles. He came out, at last, on the summit of the slope and stopped a moment