and that the entrance would disclose itself to me in the course
of my journey.

The hope of finding Jacqueline again banished the last vestiges of my
weakness. I felt like one inspired. And my spirit was exalted, too.
For she so completely filled my heart that she left no place for doubts
and fears.

That night I paced the little cabin in an ecstasy of joy. And, as I
paced it, suddenly I perceived a strange flicker of light in the north
sky, and went to the door to see the most beautiful phenomenon that I
had ever witnessed.

There came first a flash, and swiftly long streamers of flame shot up
and spread fanwise over the heavens. They quivered and sank, and
flared again, and broke into innumerable rippling waves; they hung,
broad banners of light, athwart the skies, then slowly faded, to give
place to a wavering interplay of ghostly beams that sought the darkest
places beyond the moon: celestial fingers whiter than the white glow of
a myriad of arc-lamps.

And somehow the wonder of it filled me with the conviction that all
would be well for those heavenly lights bridged the loneliness of my
soul even as they bridged the sky, from Jupiter, who blazed brilliant
in the east to great Arcturus.

And, so I felt that, though I crossed a void as wide and fathomless in
search of her, some time she should be mine and that our hearts would
beat together so long as our lives should endure.

Although the sun was well above the horizon when I awoke, I started out
on the fourth morning eager to achieve the entrance to the _chateau_.

First I plodded back to the two mountains which guarded the approach to
the valley, then worked round along the flank of the ridge of peaks,
searching for an entrance. The further I went, however, the higher and
more precipitous became the mountains.

I realized that there was little chance of finding any access along
this side, so after my noon meal I ascended one of the lower elevations
in order to obtain my bearings. But I could discern neither _chateau_
nor lake nor waterfall, and the sound of the torrent, far away to the
left, came to my ears only as a faint distant murmur.

I was far out of the way.

The snow, which had been falling at intervals during each day since
Jacqueline's abduction, had long ago covered up the tracks of the
sleigh. I had to trust to my own wit to solve my problem, and there
did not seem to be any solution.

There was no visible entrance to that mount