The day started to wane, and the sun at their backs cast a warm, orange glow over the mountain. Soon, as they climbed higher and higher, Carter and Giancarlo began to encounter the men from Castelalto descending in groups of three or four in the opposite direction, back to the village. When they came upon each other, it struck Giancarlo how readily everyone greeted Carter. Apparently his young student had made a favorable impression on the townspeople. As for himself, an introduction was usually required before anyone finally recognized him. In spite of his prolonged absence from Castelalto, none of them seemed particularly surprised to see him. That this was so was of little concern to Giancarlo.What he was most anxious to hear was their accounts of where they had been on the mountain and what they had seen. When he had gleaned as much information as he could from them, he would abruptly bid them all buona fortuna and promptly resume the climb.

On, Carter and Giancarlo went, until all that was left of the sun was a purple smudge over the western edge of the world, and darkness began to fall in earnest. By then the two had ascended above the tree line and could now look down with an unobstructed view at the cluster of lights glowing in the windows of Castelalto, far below them.The rest of the valley was a vast bowl of shadow, punctuated here and there by the lights of other villages off in the distance.

With the vanishing of the daylight, Giancarlo called for them to stop. The two took a moment to find a suitable spot, and within a few minutes they set up camp for the night on a reasonably soft patch of ground. Neither of the two had carried a tent, which was why Giancarlo had requested the plastic tarp. He opened his backpack, pulled it out, and opened it up across the ground. He set his pack and sleeping bag atop it, and gestured for Carter to do the same.

“We’ll sleep on top of it during the night,” he said. “It will be a little cool, perhaps, but not bad.”

“And if it rains?” asked Carter.

Giancarlo sighed and gave a shrug.

“If it rains,” he said, “we sleep underneath.”

With accommodations for the evening secured, the two men unpacked the sandwiches Antonella had made for them and sat down to eat their supper. For a time the two ate in silence. Indeed they had spoken very little since they had taken to the mountain late that afternoon. Giancarlo had done so to conserve his breath during the climb. Carter had done so partly for the same reason, but more so because he did not want to disturb his teacher’s concentration with idle chatter.

When he had finished his sandwich, Carter stretched out his legs, settled back against his pack, and looked up at the night sky.