After leaving Little Valley I guess we had all begun to think it would be easy going on account of there not being any streets or houses in our way. Because, one thing, scouts are used to the open country. We never thought about running into anything like that. It came all of a sudden, like, and there we were with the big tree on the ridge across the valley, plain to see, and we couldn't seem to get any farther. Gee williger, it was pretty hard for any of us to think about turning back then, after going right straight for that tree all day long. "I don't know about that," Westy said. He's always careful. Warde said, "Well, what are we going to do then? Turn back? We could go north and down the hill where it's easy, but that wouldn't be a bee-line hike." I said, "This is a bee-line hike; it's either straight west or home, victory or defeat. No beating around the bush." "That's us!" they all shouted. Warde said, "Well, then, we've either got to go on or turn back. And I'm going to find out which we have to do. There's no use standing here talking about it. If we're beaten, we might as well know it. We can be good losers, I hope. We can either go down this hill or we can't and I'm not going to say we can't till I _know_ we can't. That's the kind of a scout I'm--going to be." "You mean it's the kind of a scout you _are_," I told him. "And I'm glad to have you in my patrol, I'll tell you that!" "Maybe this hill can _beat_ me," he said; "but it can't _fool_ me. Here, hold my jacket." CHAPTER XXVIII THE LEDGE If it hadn't been for that slanting ledge a little below us we could have looked down and seen just how steep the hill was. It would be bad enough to have to turn back, anyway, that's what I thought. But to turn back without really _knowing for sure_ that we couldn't possibly go any further, gee whiz, that didn't seem like scouts. We were all feeling pretty disappointed because we knew that the chances were against us. "We'll either do it or _know that we can't_, that's our motto," Hunt said. "And if we can't, that will mean no one can," I said. "That's us," Dorry shouted. "Give me a hand down," Warde said. "A scout in khaki ought to do that," I said. "We ought not to let a new fellow risk----" "You're so strong on good turns," Warde said. "Aren't you willing to give a fellow a chance to _win_ the khaki? Here, grab hold of my hand. I'm not going to walk off the ledge. Do you think I'm blind?" "Well, anyway, be careful," I said. I felt kind of shaky, I couldn't help it. Because below that ledge there must have been a hundred feet and for all we knew it was straight up and down. I got a good firm foothold by bracing my feet behind a rock. "Stand back," I said to the other fellows. Then I held Warde's hand while he climbed down onto the ledge. I couldn't keep hold of his hand till he got all the way down, but he braced his feet on the side of the rock that made a kind of wall up from the ledge.