Now it was no longer possible for them to discern that faint glow; but such a little thing did not daunt them.

Hugh had marked well the exact location of their objective point, and Hugh seldom made mistakes, those other confident fellows were telling themselves as they cheerfully trudged along.
The foot of the cliff was at hand.

Rains and winds and snow avalanches had, during the years that had passed since the hands of men worked those diggings, served to cut loose great quantities of debris from the face of the height, so that here and there at the foot irregular pyramids of earth and rocks could be seen.

Hugh now seemed to have turned his attention from above and was bending half over, as though examining the ground.

Owen knew what this meant.
The other anticipated finding a track leading directly to the route by means of which that cavern halfway up the cliff might be easiest attained.
And, as often happens, such reasoning proved to be the wisest thing the searchers could have undertaken, for hardly had half a minute elapsed than Hugh was heard to give vent to a low ejaculation of gratification.
No one spoke, but they understood that he had found the trail he was looking for.