The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1939-02-03
. Dornsosd Yasss

still more, the road bent to and
fro and doubled upon itself, while
the woods through which we were
moving were very thick and the
trees upon either hand met over our
heads. Though we were not lost,
we were as good as blindfold and
after five minutes had passed we
knew not which way we were go
ing nor whence we had come.
We must have threaded this nat
ural gallery for nearly two miles,
when we heard, at first very faint,
the roar of falling water some dis
lance ahead.
Sand very nice, too" said Her
rick, cooking an ear. "This means
break in the trees. Stop when we
get there, my boy, and will re-
turn to the map. need hardly
say that it shows no sign Of water.
In fact, I'm inclined to think that
they guessed this bit. The tempta-
ton, no doubt, was great. Nobody
seems to come here: so who on
earth was ever to say they were
wrong?"
Whilst he was speaking we had
been rounding bend, and, though
we could not yet see it, the song of
some great cascade was growing
more impressive with every yard.
Then we f1oated over crest, and
there was bridge before us, some
forty yards off.
am sure that neither Winter nor
will ever forget the moment when
we walked on to that bridge. We
had never before encountered so ire
mendous a head Of water falling
from such height; and what with
the terrible might Of the sheaves
and tresses of foam, the everlasting
roar and the definite quaking of
the ground upon which we stood, we
felt both dazed and abashed and
looked the one to the other, as men
in the presence Of something they
cannot conceive.
I do not know how long I stood
staring, but I suddenly found that
Herrick had hold Of my arm. Be-
cause of the tunult I could not hear
what he said, but let him turn me
about and bring me up to the para
pet Of the bridge.
now had my back to the fall and
at once I leaned over and down to
see if the splendor below us COM
pared with the grandeur above, but
Herrick would not allow me to do as
/ wished, jerking my arm and shout
| ing, until in some Impotence I lift
ed my head.
And then saw he was pointing
not at the raging water, but out OF
the gap in the trees.
A crows mile away stood castle,
built on the spur Of foothin against
the green Of the woods. With the
naked eye I could see four staircase
turrets, and towards the left Of the
pile was rising one great, round
tower.
Ten minutes later, perhaps, I
made Winter a little speech.
Herrick and had strolled on, out
of sound of the fall, and Winter had
taken the Rolls and had caught us
up.
81 want you to know" said I,
sswhy we three are here and what
we are out to do. In that castle you
saw I believe there to live three
people. One is the present owner,
the Count Of Brief: the second, his
only child: and the third, nephew
Of his-a Mr.. Percy Virgil, by
name"
''The same, sir?" said Winter.
shortly.
.sThe same" said I.
'sThank you, sir" said Winter,
between his teeth.
'sNow though Mr.. Virgil lives
there, he is not the son of the house
and the castle is not his home. It
is his cousins homeland yet he
lives there
st have reason to think that the
Count of Brief prefers Mr.. Virgil,
his nephew, before his only child:
and since the Count is about as big
sweep as Mr.. Virgil himself, I
LIllIlk IL IIlOIS LAAdIl AAhCAy SIidg, bS-
tween the two, his cousin has very
thin time. And his cousin is girl
the Lady Elizabeth Virgil, just twen-
ty-four years DID,
II that was as much as said, 1t
was more than enough to fan to
fame the embers Of Winters zeal,
and from that time on he was heart
and soul in the business. as ! shall
show.
The astonishing chance which led
us straight to the viewpoint to which
we had hoped to come was the only
stroke of good fortune we met that
day. To be sure, it was handsome
enough: but the fact remains that,
so far as we could discover, the
bridge from which we had sighted
the Castle of Brief was the one and
only point on the roads we had
marked from which that remarka-
BILE pile could be fairly surveyed.
We now had our bearings, and,
the map proving faithful once more.
we never lost them again.
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