The Rajah's Fortress — page 132: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE RAJAH’'S FORTRESS. 123 The castle was built on an island in the valley. On all sides was water, a calm blue sheet that stretched away to the base of the mountain on either hand. Up the valley the lake narrowed and was lost in the forest, while below it stretched across from mountain to mountain and seemed to be restricted by a barrier of some kind, while alow moaning sound could be heard faintly. ‘“ Would you take this to be artificial?” asked Bolton. “No,” Melton replied in astonishment. “ Well, it is,” said Bolton, laughing at his guest’s amazement. ‘* WhenI found this valley there was a strange, mound-shaped mass of rocks in the cen- ter, while the stream trickled along on the right. I saw at once what a place could be made of it, and all hands were set to work to construct adam. It is a strong, solid one, too, and will stand any amount of pressure. The island was cleared and leveled and the house and stockade erected, and now the place is almost impregnable. Iam per- fectly contented here. I get books and papers from America every time the flat comes up, and of course Ihave plenty to do. The hunting is perfection, and there is fine fishing in the lake. That swing- ing bridge is a clever little arrangement of Mike’s. A rough road leads down the valley to the point to which the big flats are able to penetrate. Itis a pretty good distance to haul the cages, about twenty-five miles. I have four good span of horses, COLUM 1OOO SS co