That climb up under the rugged, menacing brows of the broken cliffs, in the face of a grim, leaning boulder that seemed to be weary of its age-long wavering, was a tax on strength and nerve that Venters felt equally with something sweet and strangely exulting in its accomplishment.  He did not pause until he gained the narrow divide and there he rested.  Balancing Rock loomed huge, cold in the gray light of dawn, a thing without life, yet it spoke silently to Venters:  “I am waiting to plunge down, to shatter and crash, roar and boom, to bury your trail, and close forever the outlet to Deception Pass!”

On the descent of the other side Venters had easy going, but was somewhat concerned because Whitie appeared to have succumbed to temptation, and while carrying the rabbit was also chewing on it.  And Ring evidently regarded this as an injury to himself, especially as he had carried the heavier load.  Presently he snapped at one end of the rabbit and refused to let go.  But his action prevented Whitie from further misdoing, and then the two dogs pattered down, carrying the rabbit between them.

Venters turned out of the gorge, and suddenly paused stock-still, astounded at the scene before him.  The curve of the great stone bridge had caught the sunrise, and through the magnificent arch burst a glorious stream of gold that shone with a long slant down into the center of Surprise Valley.  Only through the arch did any sunlight pass, so that all the rest of the valley lay still asleep, dark green, mysterious, shadowy, merging its level into walls as misty and soft as morning clouds.

Venters then descended, passing through the arch, looking up at its tremendous height and sweep.  It spanned the opening to Surprise Valley, stretching in almost perfect curve from rim to rim.  Even in his hurry and concern Venters could not but feel its majesty, and the thought came to him that the cliff-dwellers must have regarded it as an object of worship.

Down, down, down Venters strode, more and more feeling the weight of his burden as he descended, and still the valley lay below him.  As all other canyons and coves and valleys had deceived him, so had this deep, nestling oval.  At length he passed beyond the slope of weathered stone that spread fan-shape from the arch, and encountered a grassy terrace running to the right and about on a level with the tips of the oaks and cottonwoods below.  Scattered here and there upon this shelf were clumps of aspens, and he walked through them into a glade that surpassed in beauty and adaptability for a wild home, any place he had ever seen.  Silver spruces bordered the base of a precipitous wall that rose loftily.  Caves indented its surface, and there were no detached ledges or weathered sections that might dislodge a stone.  The level ground, beyond the spruces, dropped down into a little ravine.  This was one dense line of slender aspens from which came the low splashing of water.  And the terrace, lying open to the west, afforded unobstructed view of the valley of green treetops.