Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-09-05

growing difficulty in breathing under
the sustained exertion he was making,
the quick throbbing of his accelerated
heart, all told him he was approaching
his journeys end.
He judged that che must now be
drawing near the source of the stream,
and that he would presently come
upon the shelter. He had no means of
ascertaining the time. He would not
have dared to unbutton his coat to
glance at his watch, and it is difficult
to measure the flying minutes in such
scenes as those through which he pass
ed but he thought he must have gone
at least seven miles in perhaps three
hours, which he fancied had elapsed,
his progress in the last two having
been frightfully slow. Every foot of
advance he had had to fight for.
Suddenly quick turn in the canon,
a passage through a narrow entrance
between lofty cliffs, and he found him
self in a pocket or a circular amphi-
theater which he could see was closed
on the farther side. The bottom of this
enclosure or valley was covered with
pines, now dropping under tremendous
burdens of snow. In the midst of the
pines a lakelet was frozen solid; the
ice was covered with the same daz-
zling carpet Of white
He could have seen nothing of this
had not the sudden storm now stopped
as precipitately almost as it had be-
gun. Indeed, accustomed to the gray
ness of the snow fall, his eyes were
fairly dazzled by the bright light of
the sun, now quite high over the
range, which struck him full in the
face.
He stopped, painting, exhausted, and
leaned against the rocky wall of the
canon's mouth which here rose sheer
over his head. This certainly was the
end Of the trail, the lake was the
source of the frozen rtvulet along
whose rocky and torn banks he had
tramped since dawn. Here, if any
where, he would find the object of his
quest
Refreshed by brief pause, and
encouraged by the sudden stilling of
the storm, he stepped out of the canon
and assembled a little knoll whence he
had full view Of the pocket over the
tops of the pines. Shading his eyes
from the light with his hand as best he
could, he slowly swept the circumfer-
ence with his eager glance, seeing
nothing until his eye fell upon a huge
broken trail Of rocks projecting from
the snow, indicating the ascent to a
broad shelf of the mountains across
the lake to the right Following this
he saw a huge block of snow which
| suggested dimly the outlines of a
hut!
Was that the place? Was she there?
/ He stared fascinated and as he did so
thin curl of smoke rose above the
snow heap and wavered up in the cold,
| quiet air! That was a human habfta-
ton, then. 1t could be none other
than the hut referred to in the note.
Enid Maitland must be there: and
| Newbold,
The lake lay directly in front of him
/ beyond the trees at the foot of the
knoll, and between him and the slope
/ that led up to the hut If it had been
I summer, he would have been COMPEL
/ ed TO follow the waters edge to the
/ right or to the left; both journeys
would have led over difficult trails.
/ with little to choose between them,
/ but the lake was now frozen hard and
/ covered with snow. He had no doubt
/ that the snow would bear him, but to
make sure he drew his snow shoes
from his shoulder, slipped his feet in
the straps, and sped straight on