8
By now it was not that easy to get far away.
In just fifteen minutes they were breathing heavily through their mouths and dripping sweat as their strides shortened to tiny dragging steps. Meanwhile the pine tree forest had given way to a gentle grassy slope. There the tree line probably stopped. Beyond it there were only brownish mossy rocks and jumbled stones. In the distance, a snow-dusted ridge was basking in the sunshine, standing as grey against the sky as the wing of a quail. The terrain grew even steeper and eventually rose to a bare wall of rocks. Ivan saw that the barrier could not be climbed from where they were. And so he turned and skirted this gigantic fence, looking for a suitable shelter. He had great doubts about the Austrian, whose actions were now impossible to predic
