AN EERIE TWIN-TOWERED CASTLE of white stone on an ice-bound island on a frozen winter lake, a nearby English manor house haunted by a flute playing ghost who roams the halls at night accompanied by a wolf, and a mysterious kidnapped girl from the p...
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PHOTO above - sled dogs
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The horse trotted up the shore and past the lodge to the road behind it, pulling along the sleigh in which sat the Dana girls. Louise guided Missy to the right and the mare took off down the road in a westerly direction. The lodge and its outbuildings fell back behind them as the road narrowed. It had not been plowed beyond the lodge, but the sleigh swooshed through the deep snow seemingly without effort.
"Look at that vacation home," Jean said, pointing at a large dwelling on the lakeshore. "It looks like a Swiss chalet."
"It is beautiful," Louise agreed. "Wouldn't it be fun to go to Switzerland and solve a mystery there?"
"Perhaps in the future. If we ever do find Lorraine, Mr. Symington will feel indebted to us. Maybe we can talk him into giving us special rates on the Balaska and our Starhurst class could go on a European tour."
Louise grinned. "That would be wonderful. But we'd have to take Lettie and Ina along, you know, and that would surely make travelling a challenge."
Jean chuckled. "It seems to me that we are constantly shackled with that Briggs girl. We shall never be free of her until our Starhurst years are behind us."
The woods thickened as the horse trotted along, but every so often an attractive vacation home could be seen along the shore through the trees. Eventually the road tapered to a narrow track and turned inland away from the shore, leading into the hills south of the lake. A very fine snow had begun to fall and the girls could sense that there now was greater moisture in the air.
"This coming blizzard is going to be a wet one, I fear," Louise commented. "There will undoubtedly be a heavy snowfall."
Jean nodded in agreement. "It seems to be warmer, as if the temperature is rising. We must hurry and find Lorraine and return to the Ice Castle. I shan't be able to relax until she is among us."
Louise had slowed the mare to a walk, the trail having become altogether narrow and undefined. There were tracks along the way made by skis and snowshoes. "Someone has been here," the girl declared. "It's impossible to tell how recently with this fine snow covering the tracks, but this is obviously the route that Lorraine and the Arrows took in and out of the hills."
About fifty feet ahead they came upon a fallen spruce that completely blocked the way. Its browned branches told them that the dead evergreen had been there for some time and that they would be able to go no further in the sleigh.
"We'll have to walk from here," Jean said, as Louise pulled rein. "I hope it's not much farther to the Arrow's cabin. We have no snowshoes or skis."
Louise looked around. "It's pretty much just woods and underbrush from here on. Snowshoes or skis would be a bother in this tangle. I suspect that whoever has been using this trail carried them out to this point."
