Tell it on the Mountain

Logically speaking, getting back down the mountain should have been quicker than the trek up it: gravity was in their favour, tired feet and tired muscles leading them down and down to the village, to the formal farewell with the chieftain, and to home. But John had found, a time or two, that mudslides had a way of holding things up; and even though the ground beneath their feet was stable now, the rain hadn't stopped, and was quickly turning churned-up earth into a continuous messy puddle.