Janus proved himself a master in the art of climbing.  The girls met with only one really dangerous situation during that afternoon’s climb.  That was when they came to a place where there were steep slabs of granite with no hand-holds.  Over them the girls were obliged to pass with scarcely a foothold, what there were of these being almost too far apart for them to reach.  The life line here came into use for the first time.  The guide crawled over the rocks, taking one end of the line with him; then the girls, one by one, crept after him, clinging to the line, every step being made with extreme caution, for a slip would have meant a drop of about thirty feet and a landing on sharp, jagged rocks.  It would not have been a long fall, but the landing was another matter.

Then, at the end, there was another difficulty.  Here they had to work their way around a corner.  Only one could move at a time, the others holding on tightly until she had reached a place where she, in turn, could brace herself while the next one moved up; and so on until all had passed the bulging rock that had seemed to bar their passage absolutely.

“Fine!” approved the guide.  “You did it like veteran climbers.”

“Where ith the camp?” wailed Tommy.  “I can’t go another thtep.  I’m finithed.”

“Rest a few moments,” directed the guide.

“The shower is ended,” announced Miss Elting.

“Let it rain some more,” declared Jane McCarthy sturdily.  “We can’t get any wetter and the rain will help to cool us off.  It doesn’t seem to be far to the camping place.”

“It isn’t far in a straight line.  We have to take a zig-zag course, you see,” said the guide.

Janus waved his hand as a signal for them to start.  Once more they took up the weary climb, crawling from rock to rock, slowly getting higher and higher, but at no time in danger of a long fall.  The experience of a really perilous climb lay ahead of them for another day.

Twilight was just settling over the upper reaches of the mountain when they halted for the final climb to their night’s camping place.  In the ravines darkness already had fallen.

“You will all wait here while I crawl around and get to the shelf.  I think some of you may have to be hauled up,” decided the guide.  The girls gazed up a sharply sloping slab of granite, fully twenty feet long.  It followed a diagonal course, the top of it being some rods from the shelf where they were to make camp.  But, reaching the top, they would be able to crawl along until they made the shelf, the only level spot between themselves and the very top of Mount Chocorua.

Janus disappeared from view to the left, appearing twenty minutes later at the top of the long, smooth slab.  He held a coil of rope in his hands.

“Look out below,” he called, sending the coil shooting down the slab of granite.  “By taking hold of the rope, and bracing the body at the proper angle, you mountain climbers ought to be able to walk right up.  Who is coming first?”