One or two of his companions, to tell the truth, were not quite as enamoured of the expedition as they tried to appear, but they kept their emotions to themselves.

Wally was the only member of the party who was uniformly cheerful, and no one, not even Percy, exactly liked to incur his contempt by appearing to enjoy the clamber less than he.
"Come on, you chaps," cried the leader as he staggered to the top of the slope.

"Keep it up.

What a crow it will be for us, when we get to the top!" "I suppose," gasped Fisher minor, as he threw himself on the grass, "we're half-way now ?" "Getting on," said Wally.

"I dare say on the top of that next ridge we shall be able to see the top." "What, isn't that the top ?" said poor Fisher, craning his head up towards the beetling crag above them.
"Top?
No, that's the knob half-way down we see from the school window.
The stiff part begins after that." Really Wally, if he had tried to be heartless, could not have succeeded better.