The Hidden Children by Robert William Chambers Chapter 17 Page 44

“And where lies Catharines-town?”

“Nine miles beyond us, northward.”

“And the trail?”

“None, Loskiel, save for the maze of game trails where long leaps are made from tussock to swale, from root to rotting log across black pools of mud, and quivering quicksands whose depths are white as snow under the skin of mud, set with tarnished rainbow bubbles.”

“But — those who come after us, Mayaro! The army — the wagons, horses, artillery, cattle — nay, the men themselves! How are they to pass?”

He pointed east, then west: “For six miles, flanking this swamp, run ridges of high hills northward.