The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-08-21
Copyright. W. G. Chapnaa

widened into d smooth. snOw-coated
surface Of a lake.
And on Il point of land projecting
from the bottom of that mighty wall
saw the chateau.
It could have been nothing else II
was Il splendid buiIding-nOt larger
than the house of country gentle
man, perhaps. and made of hewn logs
but the rude splendor of it against
that icy. rocky background transfixed
me with wonder.
On each side of the chateau a cata-
ract plunged. yelling itself in an Opac-
ity OF mist, tinted with all the spec
trail hueS by the rays of the weStering
sun.
Why, that position was impreg-
nabIeI Behind it the sheer precipice,
up which not even bird could walk +;
the impossible lake before it, and the
torrent on either side,
But-how had NJ Charles Duchaine
gained entrance there?
There seemed 10 be no entrance.
And yet the chateau stood before my
eyes, no dream but very real indeed.
Before I reached the hut again had
formulated my plan. 1 would start at
dawn, or earlier, and work around
these mountains, a circuit of perhaps
twenty miles, approaching the chateau
by the edge of the lake. l concluded
that there must exist a ridge Of mar
row beach between the whirlpool and
the castle. though it was invisible
from above, and that the entrance
would disclose itself to me in the
course of my journey.
Although the sun was well above
the horizon when I awoke 1 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 ap-
proach to the valley, then worked
round along the flank of the ridge of
peaks, searching for an entrance. The
further / went, however, the higher
and more precipitOus became the
mountains.
There was no visible entrance to
that mountain lake on any side, and
TO descend that sheer, iee-cOated preci-
pice was an impOssibility.
1t was long after nightfall when
reached the Rbin again, exhausted
and dispirited.
awoke too late on the fifth morn
ing, and 1 was too Stiff 20 make much
of journey. 1 climbed to the edge
of the glacier once again in the hope
of discovering an approach. 1 exam
ined every foot of the ground with
meticulous care.
But wherever 1 approached the edge
the same wall of rock ran down YER
tically for some three hundred feet,
veneered with ice and wrapped In a
perpetual binding spray.
I was within three hundred feet of
Jacqueline's home and yet as far
away as though leagues divided US. /
looked down at the chateau and
ground my teeth and swore that
would win TO her. But all the rest of
that day went in fruitless searching.
This was to be my last night in the
cabin 1 could not return, not though
1 were perishing in the SHOWS.
Happily my eyes were now entirely
well. and my hands, though chapped
and roughened from the frostbites,
had suffered no permanent injury. So
started out with grim resolution on
the sixth morning, when the dawn was
only a red streak on the horizon and
the stars still lit my way.
As I stood. rather weary, balancing
myself upon my snOwshoes, I heard a
VOLTS howl quite near to me- Raising
my head saw no wolf but an Eskimo
dog-the very dog 1 had encountered
in New YOrk-Jacqueline's dOgl