The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-27
CHAPTER XII. THE LANTERN ABOVE.


 THE LANTERN ABOVE. @1HASE sat for hours on his porch lH that night gazing down upon IN the chateau. Lights gleamed @ in a hundred of its windows. The bitterness of his own isolation. the ostracism that circumstance had forced upon him, would have been maddening on this night had not all rancor been tempered by the glorious achievement in the market place. He wondered if the princess knew what he had dared and what he had accom- plished in the early hours of the night. He wondered if they had pointed out his solitary light to her-if now and then she bestowed a casual glance upon that twink1ing star of his. The porch lantern hung almost directly above his head.
 The chateau was indeed the home of revelry. The pent up, struggling spirits of those who had dwelt therein for months in solitude arose in the wild stampede for freedom. All petty differences between Lady Deppingham and Drusilla Browne, and they were quite common now, were forgotten in the whirlwind of relief that came with the strangers from the yacht Mrs. Browne's good looking, eager husband reveted in the prospect of this de lirfods night, this almost Arabian night. He was swept off his feet by the radiant princess, the Scheherezade of his boyhood dreams. His blithe heart thumped as it had not done since he was d boy. The Duchess of N and the handsome Msrchioness of B. came into his tired, hungry life at moment when it most needed the light. It was he who fairly dragged Lady Agnes aside and pro- posed the banquet, the dance, the con eert-everything- 1t was he who carried out the hundred spasmodic t- structions that she gave.
 Late in the night, long after the din- ner and the dance, the tired but happy company docked to the picturesque hanging garden for rest and the last refreshment.
 The hanging garden was a wonder fully constructed open air p1aisance suspended between the chateau itself and the great cliff in whose shadow it stood The cliff lowered at least 300 feet above the roof of the spreading chateau, a veritable stone wall that extended for a mile or more in either direction.
 Near the chateau there was a real waterfall, reminding one in no small sense of the misty wells at Lautef- brunnen or Giesbach. The swift stream which obtained life from these falls, big and little, ran along the base of the cliff for some distance and was then diverted by means of a deep, ar ttf1cial channel into an almost com plete circuit of the chateau, forming the moat. It sped along at the foot of the upper terrace, a wide torrent that washed between solid walls Of masonry, which rose to height of not less than ten feet on either side. There were two drawbridges. seldom used, but always practicable. A small sta tionary bridge crossed the vicious stream immediately below the hang ing garden and led to the ladders by which one ascended to the caverns that ran far back into the mountain.
 Two big black irregular holes in the face of the cliff marked the entrance to these deep, rambling caves, wonder full caverns wrought by the convul- sions of the dead volcano, cracks made by these splinteringv earthquakes when lne 1SlanQ was new.
 The garden hung high between the building and the cliff, swung by a score of great steel cables. These ca bles were riveted soundly in the solid rock of the cliff at one end and fasten- ed as safely to the stone walls of the chateau at the other. It swung stanch- ly from its moorings with the con- stancy of a suspension bridge and trembled at the slightest touch.
 It was at least a hundred feet square. The floor was covered with foot or more of soil, in which the rich grass and plants of the tropics four ished. Cool fountains sprayed the air at either end of the green inclosure. The illusion was complete.
 The walls surrounding the garden were three feet high and were intend ed to represent the typical English garden wall of brick. To gain access narrow bridge which led from the sec ond balcony of the chateau. There was not an hour. in the day when pro- lection from the sun could not be found in this little paradise.
 Bobby Browne was holding forth with his usual exuberance on the mag nificence of the British navy.
 There she is now, sleeping out there in the harbor, a great big thing with the kindest of hearts inside of those steel ribs-her smajesty's ship the Kings Own! Think of it! She con- voys private yacht, she stops off at this beastly island to catch her breath and to see that all are safe, then she charges off into the horizon like bird that has no home. May I offer you a cigarette, princess? By the way, I wonder how Chase came off with his side show.3
 Saunders tells me that he was near to being butchered. but luck was with him. said Deppingham. His ship came home"
 Ut was daring trick. I'm glad he