nt bearing the stamp of resolution. He took up the silver casket
which had been left in his charge and balanced it in his hands. It was
heavy, but heavier still appeared to him the responsibility which it
entailed, if one might judge from the deep sigh which escaped him. He
glanced at little Blanche, but she still slumbered quietly, with her
head resting on the wall and bent over her shoulder. Velours was more
wakeful, looking furtively at her master from the corners of her eyes
but, knowing his habits well, she did not deem it prudent to stir from
her nest or make any noise.

"There is a place of all others," murmured Batoche, "where I may hide
this beyond all fear of detection. There neither the birds of the air,
nor the beasts of the forests, nor the eye of man will ever discover it.
Blanche only will know, but I will not tell her now. She sleeps and it
is well."

He then placed the casket under his arm and stole out of the house. He
took a footpath leading from his cabin to the Falls, and having reached
their summit, turned to the right, descending from one rock to another,
until he reached the depths of the basin. There he paused a moment,
looking up, as if to ascertain his bearings. An instant later, he had
disappeared under the Fall itself. Grasping the casket more tightly
under his right arm, he used his left to grope his way along the cold,
wet wall of granite. The rocks underneath his feet, some round, some
angular, some flat, were slippery with the ooze of the earth fissures
above and the refluent foam of the cascade. Beside these dangers, there
was the additional peril of darkness, the immense volume of descending
waters effectually curtaining out the light of heaven. When he had
attained about the middle of the distance between the two banks of the
river, Batoche paused and stooped at the mouth of an aperture which
would admit only his bent body. Without faltering, and as if sure of his
locality, he thus entered into the subterranean cavity. He was gone for
fully half an hour, but when he issued forth, he straightened himself up
with ease, and by the assistance of his two hands, rapidly retraced his
steps to the foot of the Falls. There he stopped, looking above and
around him, to assure himself that he was really alone with his secret.

But no, he was not alone. Upon the brow of the waterfall, along the
perilous ridge, where the torrent plunges sheer into the chasm below, a
fragile figure in white glided