CHAPTER I.
THE WAR OF THE ELEMENTS.
_NO_ June day ever opened with a fairer promise.

Not a single cloud flecked the sky, and the sun coursed onward through the azure sea until past meridian, without throwing to the earth a single shadow.
Then, low in the west, appeared something obscure and hazy, blending the hill-tops with the horizon; an hour later, and three or four small fleecy islands were seen, clearly outlined in the airy ocean, and slowly ascending--avant-couriers of a coming storm.

Following these were mountain peaks, snow-capped and craggy, with desolate valleys between.

Then, over all this arctic panorama, fell a sudden shadow.

The white tops of the cloudy hills lost their clear, gleaming outlines and their slumbrous stillness.