XXIX

Bob had no very clear idea of where he was, except that it was in the unfriendly Durham country.  It seemed well to postpone all public appearances until he should be beyond a chance that Saleratus Bill might hear of him.  Bob was quite satisfied that the gun-man should believe him to have been swept away by the current.

Accordingly, after he had well rested from his vigorous climb, he set out to parallel the dim old road by which the two had entered the Cove.  At times this proved so difficult a matter that Bob was almost on the point of abandoning the hillside tangle of boulders and brush in favour of the open highway.  He reflected in time that Saleratus Bill must come out by this route; and he shrewdly surmised the expert trailer might be able from some former minute observation to recognize his footprints.  Therefore he struggled on until the road dipped down toward the lower country.  He remembered that, on the way in, his captor had led him first down the mountain, and then up again.  Bob resolved to abandon the road and keep to the higher contours, trusting to cut the trail where it again mounted to his level.  To be sure, it was probable that there existed some very good reason why the road so dipped to the valley—­some dike, ridge or deep canon impassable to horses.  Bob knew enough of mountains to guess that.  Still, he argued, that might not stop a man afoot.

The rest of a long, hard day he spent in proving this latter proposition.  The country was very broken.  A dozen times Bob scrambled and slid down a gorge, and out again, doing thus an hour’s work for a half mile gain.  The sun turned hot, and he had no food.  Fortunately water was abundant.  Toward the close of the afternoon he struck in to a long slope of pine belt, and conceived his difficulties over.

After the heat and glare of the rocks, the cool shadows of the forest were doubly grateful.  Bob lifted his face to the wandering breezes, and stepped out with fresh vigour.  The way led at first up the narrow spine of a “hogback,” but soon widened into one of the ample and spacious parks peculiar to the elevations near the summits of the First Rampart.  Occasional cattle tracks meandered here and there, but save for these Bob saw no signs of man’s activities—­no cuttings, no shake-bolts, no blazes on the trees to mark a way.  Nevertheless, as he rose on the slow, even swell of the mountain the conviction of familiarity began to force its way in him.  The forest was just like every other forest; there was no outlook in any direction; but all the same, with that instinct for locality inherent in a natural woodsman, he began to get his bearings, to “feel the lay of the country,” as the saying is.  This is probably an effect of the subconscious mind in memory; a recognition of what the eye has seen without reporting to the conscious mind.  However that may be, Bob was not surprised when toward sunset he came suddenly on a little clearing, a tiny orchard, and a house built rudely of logs and shakes.