This
favourite gap he had just finished optioning again, and now again
he meant to keep at his old quest. That gap he was entering now
from the north side and the North Fork of the river was hurrying
to enter too. On his left was a great gray rock, projecting
edgewise, covered with laurel and rhododendron, and under it was
the first big pool from which the stream poured faster still.
There had been a terrible convulsion in that gap when the earth
was young; the strata had been tossed upright and planted almost
vertical for all time, and, a little farther, one mighty ledge,
moss-grown, bush-covered, sentinelled with grim pines, their bases
unseen, seemed to be making a heavy flight toward the clouds.
Big bowlders began to pop up in the river-bed and against them the
water dashed and whirled and eddied backward in deep pools, while
above him the song of a cataract dropped down a tree-choked
ravine. Just there the drop came, and for a long space he could
see the river lashing rock and cliff with increasing fury as
though it were seeking shelter from some relentless pursuer in the
dark thicket where it disappeared.
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