ed away in my delirium.

The cabin, was situated in a valley, around which high hills clustered.
Strapping on the snow-shoes, I set to work to climb a lofty peak which
stood at no great distance.

It took me a couple of hours to make the ascent, and when at last I
sank down exhausted on the summit there was nothing in sight but a
succession of new hills in every direction. I seemed to be on the
summit of the ridge which sloped away to east and west of me. Hidden
among the hills were little lakes.

There was no sign of life in all that desolate country.

My disappointment was overwhelming. Surely the _chateau_ was near. I
strode up and down upon the mountain-top, clenching my hands with rage.
It was four days since I had lost Jacqueline, and Leroux had
contemptously left me to die in the snow. He was so sure I could not
follow and find him.

I began the descent again. But it is easy to lose one's way upon a
mountain-peak, and the hills presented no clear definition to me. Once
in the valley I could locate the cabin again, but the sun had travelled
far toward the west and no longer guided me accurately.

I must have turned off at a slight angle which took me some distance
out of my course, for my progress was suddenly arrested by a mighty
wall of rock, a sheer precipice that seemed to descend perpendicularly
into the valley underneath. Somewhere a torrent was roaring like a
miniature Niagara.

I discovered my error and bent my footsteps along the summit of the
precipice, and as I proceeded the noise of the torrent grew louder
until the din was deafening. I was treading now upon a smooth slope,
like the glacis of a fortress. I continued the descent, and all at
once, at no great distance from me, I saw a tremendous waterfall,
ice-sheeted, that tumbled down the face of the declivity and sent up a
cloud of misty spray.

I stopped to stare in admiration. Far below me the narrow valley had
widened into the smooth, snow-coated surface of a lake.

And on a point of land projecting from the bottom of that mighty wall I
saw the _chateau_!

It could have been nothing else. It was a splendid building--not
larger than the house of a country gentleman, perhaps, and made of hewn
logs; but the rude splendour of it against that icy, rocky background
transfixed me with wonder.

It was a rambling, straggling building, apparently constructed at
different times; having two wings and a wide central hall, with odd
pro