Jan left home in such haste that he had no time to think about the dreadful man he was going to see.  But while passing through the groves of the Ashdales toward the big forest the old dread came over him.  “It was mighty stupid in me not to have taken Glory Goldie along!” he said to himself.

When leaving home he had not seen the girl about, so he concluded that she had betaken herself to some lonely spot in the woods, to weep away her grief, as she never wanted to be seen by any one when she felt downhearted.

Just as Jan was about to turn from the road into the forest he heard some one yodelling and singing up on the mountain, to right of him.  He stopped and listened.  It was a woman’s voice; surely it could not be the one it sounded like!  In any case, he must know for a certainty before going farther.

He could hear the song clearly and distinctly, but the singer was hidden by the trees.  Presently he turned from the road and pushed his way through some tangle-brush in the hope of catching a glimpse of her; but she was not as near as he had imagined.  Nor was she standing still.  On the contrary, she seemed to be moving farther away—­farther away and higher up.

At times the singing seemed to come from directly above him.  The singer must be going up to the peak, he thought.

She had evidently taken a winding path leading up the mountain, where it was almost perpendicular.  Here there was a thick growth of young birches; so of course he could not see her.  She seemed to be mounting higher and higher, with the swiftness of a bird on the wing, singing all the while.

Then Jan started to climb straight up the mountain; but in his eagerness he strayed from the path and had to make his way through the bewildering woods.  No wonder he was left far behind!  Besides he had begun to feel as if he had a heavy weight on his chest; he could hardly get his breath as he tramped uphill, straining his ears to catch the song.  Finally he went so slowly that he seemed not to be moving at all.

It was not easy to distinguish voices out in the woods, where there was so much that rustled and murmured and chimed in, as it were.  But Jan felt that he must get to where he could see the one who for very joy went flying up the steep.  Otherwise he would harbour doubts and misgivings the rest of his life.  He knew that once he was on the mountain top, where it was barren of trees, the singer could not elude him.

The view from the summit was glorious.  From there could be seen the whole of long Lake Loeven, the green vales encircling the lake and all the blue hills that shelter the valley.  When folks from the shut-in Ashdales climbed to the towering peak they must have thought of the mountain whither the Tempter had once taken Our Lord, that he might show Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glories.

When Jan had at last left the dense woods behind him and had come to a cleared place, he saw the singer.  At the top of the highest peak was a cairn, and on the topmost stone of this cairn silhouetted against the pale evening sky stood Glory Goldie Sunnycastle, in her scarlet dress.