An involuntary cry burst from the lips of each, as one by one they set foot upon the windy summit. Far away, as it were upon the limits of the world, the sun was shining on a sea of gold. The two peaks of Jura lifted up their heads, illumined by the radiance. All around them was a billowy sea of mountain-tops--Ben Crois, Ben Ime, Ben Donich, Ben Vane, Ben Voirlich, and a hundred more, with many a lonely tarn, and many a glen without a name. At their feet lay the black waters of the lochs; and far in the south were the rugged hills of Arran. ‘Look!’ cried Laura, ‘the steamer is no bigger than a toy-boat; and the road is like a thin white thread drawn across the moor!’ ‘Come here,’ said Alec to Blake with a laugh, beckoning as he spoke. Blake followed him, and found that on one side, where there was a sheer descent of many hundred feet, a rock, which was pierced with a natural archway, jutted out from the body of the mountain. ‘This is the “needle-eye,”’ said Alec, ‘and everybody who comes up here is expected to go through it.’ ‘Nonsense! Why, man, a false step there would mean----’ ‘There’s not the slightest danger, if you have a good head. I have been through twice already,’ returned Alec, as he disappeared behind the rock. A cry from Laura told Blake that she had witnessed the danger. Margaret, whose cheek had suddenly grown pale, gripped her tightly by the arm. ‘Don’t speak,’ she said hoarsely; ‘it may make his foot slip.’ In a minute he reappeared, having passed through the crevice. ‘Alec, you shouldn’t do a thing like that; it’s a sin to risk your life for nothing,’ said Margaret, in a tone of cold displeasure. ‘There’s not the slightest danger in it,’ protested Alec. ‘None whatever,’ echoed Semple; but he did not think it necessary to prove the truth of his opinion. ‘I think we ought to be off,’ said Alec; ‘there’s a cloud coming right upon us; and if we don’t make haste we shall have to stay here till it passes.’ His meaning was not quite plain to his companions; but they soon saw the force of his remark. They had accomplished but a small part of the descent when they found themselves suddenly in the midst of a cold, thick, white vapour. It was not safe to go on, so the little company crouched together under a boulder, and watched the great wreaths of mist moving in the stillness from crag to crag. As soon as the mist got a little thinner, they recommenced the descent, for their position was not a very pleasant one. Semple was in front, while Blake and Margaret followed, and Alec and Laura brought up the rear, when it happened that they came to an unusually steep part of the hillside which they thought it best to cross in a slanting direction. The soil was of loose, crumbling stone, with here and there a narrow patch of short, dry grass, and, at intervals, narrow beds or courses of loose stones. A short distance below there was an unbroken precipice of at least five hundred feet.