ed the success of his
deadly ruse, I did not seem to care. Above me was the pale sun, the
glow of health was in my limbs--and beside me walked Jacqueline.

We must have covered at least a dozen miles or more at the time, when
we stopped for a brief midday meal. I was a little fatigued from
carrying the pack, and my ankles ached from the snow-shoes; but
Jacqueline, who had evidently been accustomed to their use, was as
fresh as when she started.

I was glad of the respite; but we needed to press on. It was probable
that Simon would camp by our dismantled sleigh that night.

When we resumed our march the character of the country began to change.
Hitherto we had been traversing an almost interminable plain, but now a
ridge of jagged mountains, bare at their peaks and fringed around the
base with evergreens, appeared in the distance. The sky became more
leaden.

Suddenly we emerged from among the trees upon an almost barren plateau,
and there again we halted for a breathing spell.

All that morning I had been looking for the trappers' huts. I had
already come to the conclusion that M. Danton's instructions were to be
taken by and large, for we could not now be more than twenty-five miles
from the chateau, and it was only here that the Riviere d'Or left us,
whirling in quick cascades, ice-free, among the rocks of its narrow
bed, some distance east of us.

There was, of course, the possibility that the distance had been
understated, and that we were only now half way. But I could not let
my mind dwell upon that possibility.

I scanned the horizon on every side. It had seemed to me all that day
that our road was running up-hill, but now, looking back, I was
astonished to see how high we had ascended, for the whole of the vast
plain across which we had been travelling lay spread out like a
wrinkled table-cloth before my eyes.

In that grey light, which shortened every distance, it almost seemed
that I could discern the slope of the St. Lawrence far away, and the
hills, foot-spurs of the mighty Laurentian range, that bordered it.
The mountains which we were approaching seemed quite near, and I knew
that beyond them lay the seigniory.

I resolved to take my bearings still more accurately, and telling
Jacqueline to wait for me a few minutes at the base of a hill and
setting down my pack, I began the ascent alone. The climb was longer
than I had anticipated. My eyes were aching from the glare of the
snow. I ha