Foster had no means of guessing the length of the shed, and as he slipped among the ballast looked anxiously in front, but could not see the glimmering patch of light he expected.  The darkness was impenetrable, but the contour of the hillside had indicated that the shed was curved, and the outlet might be nearer than he thought.  In the meantime, the sweat ran down his face and his breath came hard.  He was in good training, for his journeys among the Scottish hills had strengthened his muscles, but the footing was bad among the stones, and he labored through them awkwardly with set lips and clenched hands.  He thought of throwing away his heavy coat, but it would take a few moments to get it off and he must put down the bag, in which there was the letter he would need.  By and by his foot struck something and lurching forward he lost his balance and came down heavily.  The blow shook him and he was a little slow in getting up until he felt a rail he put his hand on quiver.  Then he scrambled to his feet, but could not find the bag.

“I hae’t,” said Pete, who seized his arm and urged him forward.

A deep snorting reached them and a tie he trod on trembled, but as he ran savagely with labored breath there was an elusive glimmer in the dark ahead.  It grew brighter, an irregularly-shaped white patch appeared, and making a tense effort while the ballast rolled beneath his feet, he staggered into the sunshine.  Then with a gasp of keen relief he threw himself upon the snow beside the track.

About a hundred yards away, a giant locomotive toiled up the incline, hurling out clouds of smoke that streamed far back among the pines.  The road bed shook and the hillside rang with the din of wheels.  While Foster lay panting, the locomotive labored past, and then long, flat cars, on which men sat upon the load of jarring rails, clanged by.  The black mouth of the shed swallowed them, a cloud of smoke and dusty snow curled about the opening, and the uproar suddenly sank to a muffled rumble.  This died away and the deep silence of the mountains was emphasized by the sound of the river.

“We were not much too soon,” Foster said with a breathless laugh.  “Now I come to think of it, there’s no obvious reason we shouldn’t have stopped on board the train and got our lunch comfortably.  I seem to have a habit of doing unusual and unnecessary things; it’s curious how soon you get into trouble when you indulge a bent like that.”

“Yon’s a verra true remairk,” Pete agreed.  “It’s a rough and thorny world, an’ if ye will not walk in the cleared paths but gang yere air gait, ye must struggle with the briars.”

“And scramble through snowsheds?  You Scots are a philosophical lot.  But do you call poaching sticking to the beaten path?”

“I’m thinking it’s as near it as stravaging aboot the Border mosses, when ye might gang by train.”

“A fair hit!  But after all, man wears the regulation paths so deep that he can’t get out when he wants.  What about the pioneers, who blaze the new trails?  Aren’t they needed?”