In five minutes they were moving, and made their way down to the river. At Nita's suggestion they kept up the stream for about a mile and then struck across for the hills. By morning they were fifteen miles away in extremely rocky and precipitous country. Here they halted for some hours, and then made their way downhill. They found that they were in fact travelling along near the edge of a precipice, at whose foot a stream ran between lofty cliffs. So steeply did the hills slope down to the edge of the precipice, that they could only travel with extreme caution; and even the pony, sure-footed as it was, had difficulty in keeping its feet. At length, however, the slope became more gradual, and the ravine widened out into a valley, apparently about half a mile wide and a mile long. They chose a dip in the descent, and found when they arrived at the bottom that they were completely sheltered from the view of anyone passing along the valley. But that the ravine was to some extent used was evident from the fact that a few cattle were scattered about.
"I think that we shall be obliged to confiscate one of these animals for our own use," Carter said; "a diet of flour and grain would be apt to pall a little even when varied by cheese, and our eventual success depends on our keeping up our strength."
"I quite agree with you," Nita said; "one thing is certain, however, that meat will be of no use to us until we can light a fire to cook it."
"I think that we shall be able to manage that," he said. "You see this depression, which looks as if it had once been a water-hole, is eight or ten feet below the level of the hillside; that's the very place we want for cooking. They will not see the fire itself, but only its light reflected on the ground above us; but I think if we collect stones, and build a circular wall, say four feet in diameter and a few feet high, with a small opening at the foot for feeding the fire and putting on the meat, there will be no fear of any reflection falling on the hillside."
"No, I should think that that would do very well," Nita agreed. "We have another two hours of daylight, and as the hill is everywhere scattered with rocks and boulders we ought to make considerable progress with our oven in that time."