noon
`` Sometime , '' said Jim prophetically , `` you two kittens will get caught up with . '' The boys had now ridden above the stunted trees that marked the limits of timber line , but they did not cross over the barren , rocky summit that rose above them for two thousand feet , covered with a broad mantle of snow , but instead bore south through a deep gorge , that threatened to close its rocky jaws upon them at every turn . But Jim was too good a scout to lead them where they would be trapped . Before noon they had made their way out of the gorge and were upon the northwestern slope of the great mountain . Looking off , while they gave their horses time to breathe , they saw a somewhat different looking section of the range than that which they had been traveling through the past day . From the height where they now stood the vast region beneath them was made up of low mountains , extending onward like recurring billows of the sea , hemmed in by peaks and higher mountains . `` Down there somewhere is the Lost Mine , '' said Jim , with a sweep of his hand .