All went well for about an hour,
when, Pippity being absent after food, I came to a place in the rock
where the walk suddenly ended. A little further on and higher up it
was as good as any part I had yet gone over; but the intervening space
of scarcely more than a dozen feet was very steep, and, what was
remarkable, loose stones lay upon its surface as though they had slid
down from above. This slide seemed to have been occasioned by a
softness of the rock in that part, causing it to scale off in thin
pieces, which the slightest disturbance would send rattling down the
mountain. Just beyond these loose stones was a smooth surface of very
steep rock, over which it would be necessary to pass in order to reach
the path beyond.
I paused here; and after Pippity had brought the fruit and I had
finished my dinner, I began seriously to discuss the question whether
or not I ought to attempt the passage of this dangerous interval.
Pippity seemed to understand my intentions quite well, for he grew very
uneasy, and in his queer ways, with snatches of singularly applicable
speech, he remonstrated most strenuously. But we now were not very far
from the top, and so fascinating seemed the prospect of reaching the
very pinnacle, that I could not withstand the impulse of making the
effort to get there.
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