He knew and liked the culture of the cities in its highest sense.

His youth had not been spent in the North American wilderness.

He had tasted the life of London and Paris, and long use and practice had not blunted his mind to the extraordinary contrasts between forest and town.
He appreciated now to the full their singular situation, practically hanging on the side of a mighty cliff, with cruel enemies seeking them below and equally cruel enemies waiting for them above.
The crevice in which they lay was little more than a dent in the stone wall.

If either of the lads moved a foot and the evergreens failed to hold him he would go spinning a quarter of a mile straight down to the lake.

The hunter looked anxiously in the dusk at the slender barrier, but he judged that it would be sufficient to stop any unconscious movement.