and loaded it with the two cartridges that alone remained
of the lot I had brought with me. Then I advanced stealthily until I
stood beneath the cataract; and here I found the spray no longer
drenched me. The splendid torrent shot out like a crystal-arch above
me--so strong and compact that only those at some distance could feel
the mist that veiled it like a luminous garment.

I came upon a door in the dark wing and, turning the handle
noiselessly, found myself inside the _chateau_. And at once my ears
were filled with yells and coarse laughter in men's and women's voices.

There was no storm-door, and the interior of the _chateau_--at least,
the wing in which I found myself--was almost as cold as the outside. I
stood still, hesitating which way to take. A fiddle was being played
somewhere, and the bursts of noisy laughter sounded at intervals.

As my eyes became accustomed to my surroundings I perceived that I was
standing near the foot of an uncarpeted wooden stairway. There was a
dark room with an open door immediately in front of me, and another at
the farther end of the passage, from beneath which a glimmer of light
issued, and it was from this room that the sounds of laughter and music
came.

While I was pondering upon my next movement, heavy footsteps fell on
the story above me, and a man began coming down the stairs. I stole
into the dark room in front of me, and had hardly ensconced myself
there than he brushed past and went into the room at the end of the
hallway.

And I was certain that he was Leroux.

It was evident that he had not closed the door behind him, for the
sounds of the fiddle and of the revellers became much more distinct, I
had left my snowshoes near the entrance to the tunnel, and my moccasins
made no sound upon the floor.

I crept out of my hiding place and went toward the open door. As I had
surmised, this was the place of the assemblage. I crouched there, with
my pistol in my hand. On the opposite side of the room Simon Leroux
was standing, a sneering smile upon his face.

The scene I saw through the crack of the door quite took my breath away.

The room was an enormous one, evidently forming the entire central
portion of the _chateau_. It was a ballroom, or had been a ballroom,
once, for it had a wide hardwood floor, somewhat worn and uneven. The
walls were hung with portraits, evidently of the owner's ancestors, for
I caught a glimpse of several faces in wigs and pe