He asserted that our comrades were fully three leagues ahead when he had met them, and that we would never overtake them.

He also hinted darkly as to other dangers of the road, if we should succeed in making the descent without breaking the legs of our horses.

Refusing his invitation to stop with him for the night, we pressed onward, and as we did so, he called out derisively after us.
The descent would not have been an easy one, even in the daytime, and in the gathering darkness there was really an element of danger in the journey.

We left the following of the trail almost entirely to our animals.

We were finally down the worst of the descent before night had actually set in.