ugh the agencies which had devastated the wall
above had wreaked their vengeance here too. But there were finger holds
and footholds, a desperate climb even in the daylight to a member of an
Alpine club. But Renwick from his ambush studied the face of that rock
foot by foot, and at last decided that when night came, the
possibilities of entrance having been denied him elsewhere, he would
make the effort.

He did not know what he would find among the ruins above, their
connection with the habitable part of the castle having probably been
walled up by Baron Neudeck, and granting that Renwick succeeded in
making his way to the top, his chances of reaching the main buildings
might be slim indeed. And suppose after all this effort, that Marishka
were not here--that Goritz had gone on--!

But how could he have gone on? Surely not by a road guarded by an army
at its other end. And it was only last night that he had seen Goritz's
fellow assassin and hireling. Marishka was within, and Renwick had not
permitted a doubt of it to enter his mind since yesterday.

But to make certain of the matter he decided upon further investigation,
retracing his steps for some hundred yards down the declivity, making
sure of his landmarks as he went, until he reached the lower level of
the valley, where crossing a brook he began climbing the steeper slope
of the northern mountain. Here a greater degree of caution was required,
for the rock upon which the Schloss was built was close to the northern
slope and it was over the eastern reaches of the northern crags that
the road passed which led to the causeway. To make his investigation
more difficult of accomplishment, most of the mountain side was in
bright sunlight while the castle was in shadow. And so, it being now the
middle of the afternoon, he decided to move slowly at first, find a
secluded spot and eat of the bread and cheese which was to be both his
breakfast and supper.

From his position, well up among the rocks, he had a view of the
tree-tops of the valley below with a glimpse of the road a short
distance from the spot where he had crossed it in the morning. The
ruined end of the castle he commanded, too, from a new angle. He was now
above the level of the crag and made out among the twisted mass of stone
the vestiges of what had once been a chapel, and a watchtower. There was
an arch which seemed to lead into a vaulted structure, but from his
position he could not see within it.