They passed the Six Husbands’ Trail, swung around north of Jefferson onto the knife-blade col between that mountain and Adams, passing Dingmaul Rock, a strange shaped boulder called after a mountain animal which is never seen except by guides when they have been having a drop too much. Peanut laughed at this, but he grew sober and silent again when it was passed, and when the trail swung to the left of Adams, rising over the slope between Adams and the lesser western spur called Sam Adams, he didn’t even grin when somebody suggested that they climb Adams, which is 5,805 feet, the second highest mountain in New England. “Go to thunder,” was his only comment. Once they had toiled up the slope, however, they looked down-hill all the way to the Madison Hut, and in thirty minutes they had crossed the Adams-Madison col and reached the stone hut tucked into the rocks at the base of the cone of Madison, the last peak of the Presidential range. With one accord, packs and blankets were dropped off weary shoulders to the ground, and the three Scouts who had been into the Gulf that day flopped down on top of them, and lay there exhausted. The other three had already been to the hut and left their load. “Well, I guess you’ve had enough husbands for one day, eh?” said the Scout Master. “And you’d better not lie there, either. Come on, inside with you, and lie in your bunks.” CHAPTER XVII PEANUT LEARNS WHERE THE SIX HUSBANDS’ TRAIL GOT ITS NAME It was, in truth, getting cold on the mountain, and the wind was freshening as the sun set. They moved wearily into the hut, and found three tiers of bunks inside, like a ship’s cabin, and a stove giving out pleasant heat, and the caretaker getting supper ready. “No cooking to-night,” said the Scout Master. “You three climb up and lie down till supper is ready.” Rob, Art and Peanut made no objection to this order, and soon, from their bunks, they were discussing the day’s adventures with the other three. “We had a wonderful day!” said Lou and Frank. “We climbed every one of the north peaks except Madison--Clay, Jefferson and Adams--and we got almost to the hut here before the cloud came. Gee, what views! We kept looking down into the Gulf for you, but we never saw you. It was lots of fun climbing back up Adams in the cloud.” “Well, we had some day ourselves, believe me Judge!” said Peanut. “We had a swim in Spaulding Lake, and a long hike in the woods down at the bottom of the Gulf, and then the Six Husbands’ Trail. Say, that’s a trail!” “My pack weighed a hundred and twenty-nine pounds before we got to the top,” Art added. “And then, when we saw the clouds above us, we hurried, too,” Rob said, “so we could reach the Gulf Side path before they closed down too far, and that took our wind.” “And then Peanut let out a Comanche yell when we did strike the Gulf Side,” put in Art, “with all the wind he had left----” “Which wasn’t much,” said Peanut.