Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-09-02
CHAPTER xxI-Continued.

CHAPTER xxI-continued.
10
81 went to New York to get my
share. / wasn't going to be ousted, 1,
who had been one of the discoveries.
/ don't know how much Carson paid
Louis, but E1eant TO demand half. l
thought hs had the money in his
pocket.
Il followed him all that afternoon
after he had left Carson's Office. /
watched him in the street At night
he wcht to a room somewhere-at the
top of tall building. 1 followed him.
When | got in l found woman there.
Louis was talking to her and threaten
Ing her. He said she was his wife.
How could she be his wife when he
had married Jacqueline Duchaine?
Il didn't care-it was no business
OF mine. l couldn't see them, because
there was a curtain in the way. There
was no light IN the bedroom. There
was a light in the room in which l
was. L put it out, so that neither of
them should see my face. She might
have betrayed me, you know, Simon.
He spun round when the light went
out, and pushed the curtain aside.
was waiting for that. had calculated
my blow. 1 stabbed him. 1t was a
good blow, though it was delivered in
the dark. He only cried out once. But
the woman screamed, and dog flew
at me, and 1 couldn't find his money.
So / ran away.
"And then there were only three OF
US who knew the secret. Then Simon
died and there were only two, and now
there are only Hewlett and l, and he
is dead, poor fool, and have my gold
here. For Gods sake give me knife.
SimOn"
His fingers tore at my sleeve in his
last agony, and / was tempted sorely.
And it was his own knife that l had.
The irony of it,
He muttered once or twice and cried
out in fear of the man whom he had
slain. I heard him gasp a little later.
Then the hand fell from my sleeve.
And after that there was no further
sound.
"Paul!"
1t was the merest whisper from the
wall. 1 thought it was a trick of my
own mind. 1 dared not hope.
paul DeareSt!'
This was no fancy born of a de-
sirious brain and the thick fumes of
dynamite. 1t came from the wall a
little way ahead of me. I crawled the
three feet that the little cave afforded
and put my hands upon the rock, feel
ing its surface inch by inch. There
was crevice there, not large enough
to have permitted bird to pass-the
merest assure.
"Jacqueline! Is that you, dear?" l
called. you are not hurt, Jacqueline~
II am lying where you left me, dear.
Paul, II heard"
"You heard" / answered duly.
What did it matter now?
"Why didn't you tell me, Paul? But
never mind. 1 am so glad dearest !
Can you come through to mel"
/ struggled to tear the rocks away :;
I beat and bruised my hands In vain
az, INST them.
81 will come when it grows light,
,Jacqueline," 1 babbled. when 1t
grows nghtr"
She did not know that 1t would never
grow light for me. Again 1 flung my
self against the walls of my prison,
battering at them TIL the blood dripped
dung myself down hopelessly, and
then 1 tried again, clutching at every
fragment that protruded into the cave.
And at last, when my despair had
mastered met grew light.
For a sunbeam shot like a finger
through the crevice and quivered upon
the floor of the cave. And overhead,
where 1 had never thought to seek,
where 1 had thought three hundred
feet of eternal rock pressed down on
me, l saw the culver of day through
half dozen feet of tight-packed debris
from the glaciers mouth.
I raised myself and tore at 1t and
sent It flying. thrust my hands among
the stones and tore them down like
the tiles from rotten roof.
l heard a shout; hands were reached
down to me and pulled me up, and
was on my feet upon a hillside, look
Ing into the keen eyes of Pere Antoine
and the face of the Indian squaw.
And the Eskimo dog was barking at
my side.
Only one thing marred the happi-
hess of our reunion, and that was the
loss of Jacqueline's father.
We had talked much over what had
happened. and ten days later, when
Jacqueline had recovered from the
shock and from what proved to be,
after all, only a fiesh-wound, we had
visited the scene of our rescue by the
old priest.
The charge of dynamite which La
croix had set. exploded, as it happened.
beneath that part which buttressed the
entire structure. and combining with
the pressure of the glacier above, had
thrown the mountain on its side, fill
ing the lake with several million tons
of ice and celebrating all traces of the
chateau. which lay buried beneath its
waters.
That was Pere Antoine's expIana-
tion,- and we realized at once that it
was useless to search for Charles Du-
chaine. The whole aspect of the re-
zion had been changed; there was
neither glacier nor cataract, and the
lake, swollen to twice its size and
height. slept peacefully beneath its
covering of ice and snow.
- -. -. ....s 81, +hn .nhs- IA