Page:McLoughlin and Old Oregon.djvu/169



"All the year round the glaciers glitter on those heights beyond," she said. "And you can read, at night. You can read all night in these Sitkan summers. The midnight sun just dips behind Edgecumbe, and before twilight is gone the dawn is here."

Edgecumbe rose like a snowy cone beyond the island-studded harbor. A fleet of skin bidarkas moved in and out among the ships. The steamer "Alexander," from Okhotsk, was landing the mail from St. Petersburg, whereat the princess flew away for letters.

"And do you like it here?" asked Eloise of the dainty Lady Etholine.

"One always likes the home of the honeymoon," answered the bride of Etholine. "My husband says the grandest scenery of the world lies along this coast. I love to fancy this is Naples, with its cliffs by the sea and its lava cone. It lay like this long ago before the Romans built their villas on its shores."

"And do you think some Virgil yet may write an ^Eneid here?" asked Eloise, smiling.

"Who knows? Baranoff would be a worthy hero. They tell great tales of him in his battles with the Sitkans. Some dark tales, too. When at night I hear the roar of the sea-lions and the pitiful cry of the seals, I tell Adolphus it sounds like the moans of all the dead Alaskans."

Governor Etholine and his lady were model hosts. Sumptuous dinners and courtly balls followed each other in swift succession. At sunrise the reveille sounded, at sunset the drums beat, and the great light blazed in the tower. The heavy Muscovite padlocks were turned in the gates, and all night the sentinels paced the promenade, guarding the life and treasure of Sitka Castle.