Clambering over boulders, leaping across narrow chasms, letting himself down from ledges, his preoccupation soon left him, and physical exertion took the precedence.

Half an hour's work brought him to the out-jutting promontory which had concealed the further reaches of the valley.

These now lay before him, merging imperceptibly into indistinctness.
"This atmosphere is unbearable," said Freeman.

"I must get a little higher up." He turned to the right, and saw a natural archway, of no great height, formed in the rock.

The arch itself was white; the super-incumbent stone was of a dull red hue.