Then he glanced upward and saw the precipitous slopes above him, with the path winding in and out amid the rocks and bushes and showing itself only at intervals. For some moments he stood with his mouth open, seemingly thunderstruck. “Well, I’m a liar if I ever saw a mountain grow before!” he muttered. “This one has grown about three thousand feet taller than it was when we started to climb it. Jumping jingoes! you don’t mean to tell me we’ve got to scratch gravel all the way up that declivity, do you? Why, look at those cliffs! Look at those smooth rocks! We’ll never get up there in a thousand years.” Dick Merriwell and Brad Buckhart had been admiring the view. The Texan nudged his friend with his elbow, chuckling in a low tone: “I sure opined Bob Singleton was some lazy, but this gent certainly has him beaten to a custard.” “It’s not half as lad as it books—I mean it’s not half as bad as it looks,” said Harry Rattleton. “That’s right,” agreed Frank. “You know at a distance a thing looks small and insignificant many times, but in this case, being close under the mountain makes it look more precipitous and difficult than it really is.” “Oh, yes! oh, yes!” grated Browning, glaring at Merry. “You’re a fine talker, you are! I have heard you talk before. You told me it was such a delightful thing to jog up the side of this mountain by this old footpath. It was such a simple matter that one might fall asleep while walking up the path! If there’s anything that exasperates me, it’s a liar! If there’s anything I have no use for, it’s a liar! Fabricators are dangerous. They should be abolished, and here’s where I think I will abolish one.” As he said this he clinched his fist, turned it over and over, and examined it as if making a critical inspection; and then, with it shaking ominously, he advanced toward Frank, who was standing close to the edge of the rock. “What are you going to do?” asked Inza. “I am going to kill him,” said Bruce, in a deliberate manner. “I am going to throw him clean over the village and into the harbor out yonder. I will throw him out so far he’ll never be able to swim ashore.” “Oh, please—please don’t, for my sake!” entreated Inza, with mock terror. “Spare him and give him a chance to repent of his sins!” “Well, for your sake I will spare him,” said Bruce. “You spoke just in time. He owes you his life. Say, children, let’s not climb the mountain to-day. Let’s rest here a while, call it a full day, and go back.” They laughed at him mockingly, and finally he flung himself down with a hopeless groan. “I think I will go back, anyhow,” he said. “I don’t think I’d ever survive the rest of this climb.” “But you can’t go back, Bruce,” said Elsie. “We won’t let you go back. We want you with us. We want you to provide amusement for us.”