But this same sharp incline was now likewise a preventive of escape.

Hamlin shook his head as he recalled to mind its steep ascent, without root or shrub to cling to.
No, it would never do to attempt that; not with her.

Perhaps alone he might scramble up somehow, but with her the feat would be impossible.
He dismissed this as hopeless, his memory of their surroundings drifting from point to point aimlessly.

He saw the whole barren vista as it last stood revealed under the glow of the sun--the desolate plateau above, stretching away into the dim north, the brown level of the plains, broken only by sharp fissures In the surface, treeless, extending for unnumbered leagues.

To east and west the valley, now scarcely more green than those upper plains, bounded by its verdureless bluffs, ran crookedly, following the river course, its only sign of white dominion the rutted trail.