To-day, therefore, she moved along this dangerous trail with the greatest apparent _nonchalance_.
Furthermore her thoughts so completely absorbed her that while ascending from the level of the Rito she unconsciously went on thinking of nothing else but of what Say Koitza had told her in the cave, and of the plans for relief which she had begun to devise, or at least to revolve in her mind.
The trail is not only rough and long, it is very steep in places; and the woman stopped for rest, sitting on a ledge of rocks.

Below her the vale was no longer visible; a dark chasm yawned at her feet; out of it the cliffs of the Tyuonyi rose like the heads of giants.
One more difficult stretch had to be overcome before Shotaye could reach the timber crowning the plateau on the northern cliffs of the Rito.
Massive benches or ledges, abrupt and high, seemed to render farther ascent impracticable.

But Shotaye kept on after a short stop without the slightest hesitation.

The trail wound its way upward.

It crept from rocky step to rocky step, led her from crags to narrow bands skirting dizzy cliffs, until she came to a level where the timber of the northern mesa was easily reached.