The evening world. Newspaper, February 28, 1914, Page 9

a peace. " (Coprright, 1915, by ive Century Company.) STNoPsis OF P: Philly caries, on acuiy iientenam, » mieue vy lun closet fi Morey bubyary t<tuten use NO CHAPTERS, bischi(sied at, The Evening World Daily Magazine, Saturday, top vome wearer and feo! ‘his oul upon her ders. CHAPTER XIX. A Sortie. JT that did not happén, and a sutiden instinct that something must have gone wrong reached ber with al- must che for.e of @ spoken word. “What is it? What bas happened, Philip?” she asked as she turned. He did not answer at once, He side was bending over the bole formed CHAPTER XVIII. (Continued) A Moonlit Day. EANND was doting upon & till drowsy when he led her along the tunnel to the cliff head. tried to persuade her to take a exercise along the length of the but demurred to that. In- him to bring out some let her eit there at head looking out. , e —e @ fi A a 3 to know what I should like most ‘all, it would be to have you bring F ‘wings so that I can see you fy- and tt fi u through.’ felt some hesitation, partly out fear of leaving her and partly @oubt concerning his own oat aloft again by main like a falcon. Alb wer was here unimpaired, eensation it bepuen him hetehtened and made thrilling by f dist fe could only Creamed pt eve harp sense of his own delinquency fa having left her to her own re- yr eo long increased to a alarm for her safety, -yhon he.made out the black mouth of the 1 and saw that there was no / arther end of it. She ve been waitin old; and yet his made out a dark here upon the snow. His lead as he dropped 4 scrambled clear of and fore moment was dead. ene oo teomtead cold as the snow itactt, anda he chafed so frantically but not rigid; and, as he her up in hea telyrd ant perenne ainst her br Ween ve y faintly and slowly, ‘ Pin hi rms and her up in his a her into the pilot house. The here wae etill warmer than that oe ‘of doors, but it was no longer sted. and poisonous. took off her heavy seal coat, and, as w ned the other clothing about he! waist. Last of all he gathered her {n his arms again, wrapped th aheep skin bag about them ‘and, with the brandy and water reach, settled down to wit arm’ 4 Eisai rah ot SoSh ine hers. he was not fully unconscious now, cheap of bearekins, Ghewas “i @ ghe supplemented, “if you field glass that I cam wi by the top of the ice chimney and rather deliberately replacing wooden cover upon it. When he did straighten up at last an\i his face she knew her instinct had Rot led to er. thoen weeks when we lived in terror im, and after the last thing he us. But we had forgotten him Roscoe, you know—and now he has @ march on us.” She looked at him in a sort of wonder. “He has found our stores down be- low here. He has taken everything— made a perfectly clean sweep. I would have followed him up at once, without coming back here, only I didn't havo my wings. Now I've got back to then 1 must start at once. “The light ts all in his favor, the darkness in mine. I! 1 can find him now, I think I can ki him. Now I think it over, it seemi me likely he doesn't suspect we are alive at all. The Walrus people never lscovered the ice chimney nor the pilot-house, That's perfectly clear. If they had they would have rified it long “rou are to be the garrison of the fort,” he went on. “Until I come back you must keep Watch every moment. I don't think he knows about the ice chimney or the pilot be gon me and comes here, you must shoot him, without word or warnin, any knife, Ite got a it quarters, I couldn't possibly him from the air. But if I can near him and come up within ing distance he will hi no chance with me, not with all hie st ” “No,” ahe sald, resolutel: let you go. Not that way. jsten, Jeanne. If I can find hi ‘tit vl nly chance Roscoe against is of picking me off at long range with his rife. He could do that whether I had th revolver or not. And if he aid, if killed me and I had the revolver, then —well, then he would come here and m u—defenseless. Don't you sen? the sevelv: ehould in tragic submission, dropped away. Without saying Cayley the door into the tunnel and took up his furled wings. As he adjusted across his shoulders, he ds again, upon his head, behind his neck. “Nothing ean harm me to-night. He pulled ber up close in his en- Cy mouth, Tn. an instan: off the cliff-head into ¢! ig! He headed up into the wind i hung for a moment soaring upon & fairly steady current of air that poured along parallel to the cliff. His original plan had been to fol- low Roscoe up the beach to the cave, in the hope of overtaking bim, laden with their stores, and settling mi ters, out of hand, then and there. But a moment later he rejected that plan for a better one. He tow- ered in a sharp spiral up five hun- dred feet higher, into that velvet, spnneied sky, swept across the creat of the cliff, an is thwartwise to the breeze which he found on that side he went glancing down the val- ley toward the glacier with the velocity almost of an arrow. Slowly he began to descend in the sweeping circles of reat spiri cohstantly searching with an cager- ness which jounted almost to an a ni was within twenty feet of the q of the ice before hie little mir- ror of concave silver caught the mest time he offered her © swallowed it. Her eye- .8 ttering a little, too, and no' kened for a moment, and fire itself—that must be hi in the gteat rock which al blocked the entrance to what be the lanted away egein. searchin: how & ‘a level place to alight, foun: it witl fn a hundred yards of the cave 4 moment later came t with a faint n the ice. instantly to his @ err they clasped her “{—I—don't want to let you go,” he 00td, voice had a note ct ih oad fever heard before. leanne, d can you for- ‘ve me—forgive me that it's true? orgive me for telling you? IT have the whole world in my arma when I pela. you like this, And life and th ‘and promises, and past deed: ight and wrong, are all swal tap, juat in the love of yo too jer breath in a great { little she clasped her 6wn young arme around his neck ‘aga held him tight * fter that that ace herself. or ir wi you'll bars to go Seve jate to some mol p> ‘” ve Bething much left up down on a heap of the open door and bi in it 4 i tlonloas, teeth while he furied his planes. That he deposited the bundle in an angle of a@ projecting rock and stealthily made his way toward the cave mouth. He skirted the rock, which partially blocked closely ing the corner donly within what h ry nerve tuned pitch—with every mus. upple relaxation, for any demand made upon it—he corner and into ve. staring of the cave to make sure that Roscoe was not there, The cried aloud that it was empty. th tion of the fire it wae the ent As 9 his (hi saaahieg Ss cd? nd aligh OES a the cave, ie him al on a flat hit of rock, which seemed 0 serve Roscoe's purpose as a table, Cayley’s action in stooping to pick it up Was automatic. He put it in his pocket and went out of the cave, Only during the moment when it had first caught his eye had it really com- manded his attention at all. By tho time he got outeide of the cave he had forgotton it, He crouched down in the sheiter of the big rock to await Roscoe's re- turn. Ho had ba HA settled himself when he saw somethifig that made him vhake his head impatiently and swear A little, It was the winking glow of an aurora borealis. Cayley and Jeanne had ~ften watched these auroras from b. gin- ning to end with delight, but It had niwnys been a strange, piquant sort of pleasure that had a spice of terror in, at. But to-night, as he crouched thero alone on the beach, waiting for the man who did not come, the wild, freakish, indefnably menacing qual- ity of those strange lights affected him powerfully. The one he saw brightening now was developing iteeit into a stupehe ns spectacle, The long, nish pencils of light, rippling, lickering, fading, flashing out again, gradually established themselves in an immense double devil’s rainbow clear across the sky. ‘ie gazed at the spectacle un- qillif@iy, but still he gazed. And, somehow, though he fought the feel- ing desperately, it began to assume « personal significance to him—a sig- nificance of mockery. The whole sky was quivering with vast, silent laughter. Was it because he, with his fancied cleverness and daring in finding Roscoe's lair and waiting for his return to it, was really doing pre- clsely the thing that Roscoe would have him do? Were those sky itches laughing over what was hap- pening up at the pilot house while he sat here and waited? lo sprang to his fest, caught up bundied wings, unfurled them id took the air with a rush. Once had je himself aloft to a hh above the crest of the cliff, it was hardly more than a mat- ter of seconds before he came oppo- site the dome-like mound of snow which covered the pilot house. ‘There was no light shining out of the tunnel entrance, But that was as ne had expected it to be. He ma: easily enough; and in another mo- ment had ted there. “Joann: called. It was not the exertion of flight, but ‘Th had halted a little in his throat. actly as he uttered it he saw down the tunnel and in the pilot house it- self @ tiny spark of fire and heard the click of steel against filnt. What the spark illuminated were the fingers of a gigantic hairy hand. “Jean he called again and now his voice came clear enough. “Wait a minute and I'll make a light for you.” CHAPTER XX. In the Pilot House. MBAYLEY had been right in as- suming that Roscoe and the other people of the Walrus had never noticed the ice chimney, nor suspected the exiatence of the pilot-house upon the cliff-head, Also, he had followed cor- rectly the track of Roscoe's mind in the deduction that the two latest castaways upon this land must have perished in the great storm which be- nS on the night when he fired tho ut. During the storm he had lived in But when the storm abated and milder weather came he beatirred himeelf and net about digging a tun- nel through the great drift which had blocked the entrance to hin cave. ‘The next time the moon came up, after he had completed the tunnel from the cave, he set out down the beach toward the ruins of the hut. It was not mere curiosity which at- tracted him, nor any lurking fea simply the hope of making some sa! yage from the wreckage of the but. His ple ire over the quantity afd condition of the stores he found in the ice cave compensated for his dii ‘th working without fatigue and withou intermission—working so long as the moonlight lasted. He was just setting out with his last load when, glancing skyward to see how long the tight would hold, h caught @ gilmpse of Cayley on the wing. It was surprising, of cour but Roscoe, in his present tate, never thought of looking to Supernatural means to account for t. Indeed, he was hardly more than a mo true explanation. be, he supposed, up somewhere in the face of the cliff, a cave or shelter of which he knew nothing, and easily to possess a flying machine. Skirting the cliff and keeping well in its shadow, he made bis way with his last load back to bis cave. Her he spent a few minutes cleaning his rifle, making sure that the mechan- ism of the breech was working per- fectly, and filling ite maguzine full of cartridges, ‘The moon was just setting, but the shy was still bright enough to give him a good hope of making out Cay- le: winged figure against it, He did not follow the old track down the beach, but made straight out over the rough masses of ice which covered tho bay. It was dark enough to do away with the danger that the sky-man might see him first, Roscoe squatted down in the lee of the great hummock of ice and waited very contentedly. He had not long to wait. Long be- fore the moon-twilight had gone out of the sky he saw in it, silhouetted againat it, the sight from which he had once fled with such mad terror — the broad expa: of the sky-man's wings. He was coming along almost di- rectly above the spot where loscoe waited and within ¢asy rar Ros- coe had raised his rifle and was sight- ing deliberately along the barrel be- fore the idea occurred to him, which cal him to lower it again rather suddenly, and swear at himself a lit- ir bis brea: tle, th, as @ man o, has nearly made a bad mis- “where, exce; it out ¢l before learning from him the location of this unknown shelter of his; for, if the man was living, thore was a pretty good chance that the woman was too. There would be plenty of chances to kill the man after he had discovered the location of their nesting-place. So, instead of firing, he scrambied to the top of the nearest ice hummock and from there watched Cayley’s flight to his landing place. He did not movo from his attitude of strained attention, on the summit of a little ice hill, until he saw a faint glow of golden light diffusing itself from the mouth of the tunnel that led to the pilot house. Then, with that queer shuffling gait of his, which was neither walk nor run, began making Way inshore, over the tce, toward foot of the cliff. There wi sheltered hollow in the severest weath- er, one could pass @ number of hours quite comfortably. From hie new!; gained coign of vantage he could see atraight into the pilot house, an ie out clearly enough two figures there. The moment he glimpsed the shadow of Cayley's tay lg oe wl tare ho began making way, cal tiously, over the crusted snot the pilot-house and at tast himself over the crown of ley's tunnel, let himself down, and dropped, with cat-like lightness for 80 heavy é man, just outside the pilot-house joor, Jeanne wi beside the oil stov joward ‘orresponding cornet. The revo! lay on the table in the middie of room, a few paces behind pilot-house door was directly in with it, and almost oat, be- id her bas ‘The door was hinged swing inward. ‘When it burst open ‘she attributed the fact to no other age@ty than the wind. She inid down the red-bound book upon the bench beside her and rose rather deliberately before she turned round. As ahe did #0 Roscoo sprang for- ble and seized the re- . clutching close quarters. So as he sprang for- ward he dropped it and made for the ne Lj hat she was unarmed. Quite delib- erately he broke open the breech of ha and satisfied himself that it was loaded. Then he looked up again, blinking at tl # She had uttered no cry at all. She turned dead-white and her eyes were wide, but there was no terror in pemoos on bis part stood gtar- ther. Jeanne’s eyes she raised her hand to her throat, as though she were chokin, Bh looking past down the snow tunn He's here The snow tunnel was’ empty, and for aught she knew her lover's body might be lying mangled in the mons- ter’s cave, Sho had thought of that before she tried the trick. But, even if that were so, that cry of hers © might lead the monster to steal one uneasy glance at the door behind him, and even that would give her tH enough, If he had not killed Philip, but simply eluded him, he would turn instantly, That was what he did. He sprang round with a suddenness which be- spoke a perfectly genuine, common. sense alarm. And then he found him- self in darkness. He understood at once that he had been tricked, Without wasting the time to turn back-and look at Jeann: he sprang toward the pilot-house door. In the open doorway he wheeled round, triumphantly. She had not sot ahead of him that tim He faughod aloud into the darkness ni then spoke to her, with a vile, jocular familiarity. ‘But ho got no answer, in words or f otherwise. stified sobbing. ‘There was no outcry, no Nothing at all but t the sigh and whine of the wind. stood where he was for a little drawing deep breaths to steady himself. She must be there—must be hiding somewhere in the shadows. She could not have got out. There no way out, He took a bit of flint, a nail and a rope of tow from his pocket. He struck a spark, but it failed to kindle the tow. Tt was at that instant that Pbilip alighted. Philip’ tratagem was a perfectly rudimentary one, and it was an in- stinct rather than a conscious plan that suggested it. Hin mind did not pause to draw even the most grimly obvious inference from the fact thi it was Roscoe's hand which held the flint and steel here fi His calling Ji second time, tellin; before Roscoe attacked him. man would think he had him at his mercy. Roscoe, on hearing his voice the first time had dropped the articles which encumbered his hands and groped on the table for the revolver. Refore he could put his hand on it Cayley spoke the second time. At that, wanting no weapon, con- {, fident that he needed none, his gre: hands aching for the feel of th sky-man's flesh within their grasp, he moved a step nearer the door and waited. He saw Philip cross the threshold, unseeing — suspecting, apparently, nothing; saw him, at last, within hands’ reach. Just as he touched him he uttered a sobbing oath, and his great hands fal- tered, for Philip's knife had ‘uck through, clean to the hilt, and just below the heart. ‘The cffect of the shock was only m mentary, With a yell sprang upon Cayley, back agi Diindly, getting Philip's right fore: fn the grip of both hands, it like a pipestem, Tn # moment Cayle: round be. hind him and with the ik of hii ood arm round Roscoe's neck he ceeded in forcing him to release his grip and In throwing him heavily. As he lay, his Rody Projected thrones the doorway, out Into the tun- nel. will. Philip Geft him huddled thi went be the ie found back to filnt and p bee ge foih Sohail his detached 4) To! 4 beach @ light, for the inferencen fram Ros. coe's presence here in the pilot-hous began to crowd upon him now, grim and horrible. But he struck @ spark at last, lighted the die and looked about. The reaction of relief turned him for # moment, giddy, as the glanve about the room convinced him that what he feared worst had not hap- pened. But another thought occurred to him, almost at once, when he saw that the cover had boen removed fron } the top of the ice chimney. In his mind, of course, that repre- sented the way Roscoe had come. ‘What if Jeanne, unable for some rea- gon to defend herself, had chosen, as the lesser evil, to fling herself over the cliff from the tunnel-mouth? ‘Tho moment he thought of that he went out into the tunnel, stepping across Roscoe's body to do so. He went to the edge and looked over, but it was too dark to see, Tho light of the aurora, which still blazed in the sky, dazzled his eyes, without lighting the surface of the world below. He must go down there, in order to 6 sure, He had not ei Raped to furl his planes when he alig! |, and they had wedged themselves sideways into the tunnel, still extended and so ready for flight in an emergency. He righted them and slipped his arms through the loops that awaited them, He stood for a moment, testing the ri«ht wing tentatively. ere waa a play about it that he did not under- atand. So far as he could nee, nothing was broken, The fact that it was his own arm did not occur to him. He was just turning to dive off the cliff-head when, suddenly, he saw the er. grent form of the man ‘he had sup- poséd to be dead rise and rush upon him, Philip's knife had, indeed, inflicted a mortal wound, but a man of Roscoe's physique lets go of life slowly. He was bleeding to death, internally, but the process was, probably, retarded by his huddled position, as he lay there in the tunnel. fo he had lain still and awaited his chance. Cayley was standing quite at the edge of the wd the snm’s momentum carried him over. His hand grasped Cayley’s shoulders, and they went down toget- her, over six hundred feet of empty spac ‘or Cayley the space was all too As they went over he thought that he and his gigantic enemy were going down to death together. ‘They were, of course, bound to go down. Neither his strength nor the area of his planes sufficient to support them both in the afr. But in the position into which he had flung himeelf they would go down a little more slowly. Twice, with all his might, he sent his left fist craal against thé face, face, that con- fronted hia own. atill that con- 4 vanes dying grasp held fart. They were no more than @ bare two hundred feet above the ice. Wita a supreme and deaperate effort he wrenched himself free and the grew weight dropped off. Anothe: effort, the instantaneous exertion of every ounce of force he possessed, corrected the sudden change of balance and prevented him from falling, like the great, inert mass ho had just cast Trembling, exhausted, ho managed to blunder around in a half-ctrele, slanted down tnland and stumbled to a landing on the bench, not fifty yards from the ice-clad ruins of the hut. ‘An he did go, the thought wae th his mind that during his struggle in the air, with Roscoe, he had heard a ery, which neither he nor his antag- onist had uttered. The perception came to him as a memory, and in memory tt seemed to_be Jeanne’a voice. Now, unless his wits wore wander- ing, he heard it again, and it called his me, He was half incredulous of its reality, even as he answered ft, But the next moment, beforo he could extricate himself fi hin planes, or even attempt to get to hie t, he felt the pressure of her body, as she knelt over him. CHAPTER XXI. Signals. HERE were a good many + days after that—not days at all, really, but an inter- minable period of night— which were broken for Jeanne by no ray of hope whatever, She kept Philip and herself alive from day to day, and this occupation left her hardly time enough to think whether there was anything to hope for or not, Philip had fainted within a moment after she had reached hin side there ne. on the ice, after the fight with Hos- coe. He had recovered almost tmme- 4 Giutely and had walked along with her, steadily enough, as far as the ico ca’ but here he collapsed in good earnest. It was Impossible, of course, for him to get back into the pilot house. Jeanne mounted thither and dis- mantled the place as well as she could, throwing or carrying down such ‘articles as she thought might be of use, With the skins they bad accumulated during the winter she contrived @ sort of shelter in the alf-burned storeroom behind what had been the hut; There she took what care she could of her invalid, Much of the time Philip was de- rious; sometimes violently so, and yet she often had to leave him, When she did so it was with no certainty at all that she would find him alive upon her return, At last the conviction was forced upon her that Phillp was actually on the road to recovery, Hix delirium became less violent und occurred at Jonger intervals. The frightful con- dition of his wounds began visibly to Improve. And Philip steadily grew stronger. He was able, at last, after a long jeep and a really hearty meal of sustaining food, to get up and walk out of thelr shelter to the star-vaulted was all that he was equal to the end of the little promenade he expressed a disinclination to go back to the stuffy little shed which had bee: of his long illness. The clean, w Poundless alr was bringing back the west for life to him. So Jeanne brought out from t' reat bun dle of furs and ma nest of them on the beach, and there he lay back end she sat down b bim. He had lifted the d that wan chad into it to bis sitence after that. Then, with a it- Uo effort, the girl spoke. “Phillip, do you remember my say- ing what a contempt you must have for the world that didn’t know how to fly? Do you remember that, and the answer you jo to it?" He nodded, “Philip,/is thut still there? Your contempt, I mean, for the world?” don't betieve," he said, “that can even ask that sertously— you, who again and my life, For hos lHved in me these la: must be a good man: your warmth and ith and fra- xrance that gave ick my soul, long ago.” He pau a momont; then, when he went on his voice & somewhat different quality. the other contempt, Jeanne, that still exists, or would exist if I gave it the chance, the world’s contempt for me. Not even your faith could shake that, “I'm not #0 sure of that,” she said, in a rather matter-of-fact ton though there was an undercurrent of excitement in it. “Philip, I have been trying to solve @ pussie since you were ill. I hoped L.could solve it by myself, but I'll have to ask you to help me. It's a atring of iettera writ- ten around a ture, in a locket.” “A locket of yours he asked, eur- prined, “Never mind about that just now.” She spoke hastily and the undercur- rent of excitement stronger in her v ter was all by itse! to keep her voice » And lotters Hin voice clutched su tdenly “Ita a code,” bh code of my own. unsteady, and he her hand. sald, “a boyish It conaiats simply vi ita a Nttle odd that vou should have Pg tae upon another example of it.” he next word was o-r-g: i That means ‘betrayed’,” he said almost instantly, “Was—was there any more?” "“Qne little word, three letters, ‘u-v-z.’ But Tt know already what they mean, Philip.” There was @ momentary silence, then she repeated the whole phrase—'A coward betrayed him!" She was trembling all over now herself, “I knew," e sald, “I knew it was something like that.” hen she dropped down beside him “lasped him tight in her arms. Philip, that wes written around your ure, an old picture of you it must 4 pi have been, which fell out of your pocket when T was undressing you that night after your fight with Ros- coe, J recognized the locket it was Inclosed in as Mr. Hunter's, I had often seon it on his watch fob a Philip incredulously, “Yeu she said, “that pusried me or ® while, and finally figured it out. You must have found tt"— “That nicht in Rorcoe’a cave when T was waiting for him. 1 had for- rotten tt until this moment.” “T knew It muat be like that,” she “4 said, “something like that. Wann’t it-——" she began—, “Hunter's code as well You, We made it up toget! we were boys,” he sald, “and It occasionally even after we Point. We wrote in enally as in English; wame way.” Her young arma still held bim fast. “Philip, he must have been sorry a long time—almont since It happened. It’s and old, old pleture of you, dear, and the ink of the letters is faded, He's carried it with him ever since, ax n reminder of the wrong he did you, and of his cowardice in letting you suffer undet ant suppose It waa that from the rat.” “I don't believe he ever meant’— fhe let the sentence break off there, and there was a lo Jong silence “I suppose that's true,” he last. “I suppose T might have him then, just as T might have him later, from Roscoe's dart. T can think of a hundred ys it might have happened —the accusation againat me, | mean—without his hav- ing any part in I Then he said Fanshaw told you » didn't he?” ented. “Mont of it, that fs, not quite all he knew.” myself,” he told And mueases, I know about the girl. Hun- fer was half mad about and sh T suppose, wan in love with him, An way, he came to me ono night—the jant time T ever talked with him: raging with excitement, ‘The girl father had found ou’ about him meant, she said, to kill him, and per ps her, too. Anyhow, #l hidden Hunter's aceing her again, We took @ drink or two together before I started and I suppose he muat have drunk himself half mad after that, for he started out right on my and did what you know. Thi always supposed until just now that he had uxed my name as his own with her to screen himself from pop: sible trouble. But that may not have been the cane. poken of mo us hi and it would be natural give her father my nam Hunter's, and mak aycalnat me. ‘ould, probably, clear myself without involving him, and that the whole row might blow over without doing any trreparabl dimage to either of us, And then, when it didn’t blow over--when It got worse and meant ruin for somebody - the fact that he hadn't spoken at first. would have made it ten times harder to spenk at lust. [ might have helped him. He sent word to me once, when [ was under nrreat, to ask if T would see him, and I refused. Twas very... " His speech was punctuated now by longer and longer Pauses, but still Jeanne waited.— “Very sure of the correctness of my own attitude then, Correct is, per- haps, the exact word for it. I wquldn't turn # hand to save @ man ~& nan Who had been my friend, too living out the rest of his life : shuddered a little at that and she quickly lald her band “That was long ago, aaid. she "You can see now what a god, \ 4 ‘But jy had for- |, February 28, And, if you did wrong, then {t's you who have suffered tor it-you who have paid the penalty. You have paid for the thing you left undone as well as for the thing he did. But we must hot talk about it any more, now. You're not strong enough. I ought not to have spoken of it at all, bu somehow, I couldn't walt any jonger.” “Just this much more, Jeanne, and then wo will let it go: You see now, don't you, dear, why I said I never me could go beck to the world, never clear myself of the old charge at Hunter's expense—erry Hunter's ex- pense—now that he is don't you seo that that’s now as it was when I firat laugh and bait a tho world matte: You vl me Us, and what else is there that matters? Come, it's time for you to take an- other nap, Are you warm enough here, or shall we gu back to the he sald. it was Jeanne who went to Somehow, since the last ex- Tt was Philip’ her, How lc not know, He was sitting erect on the great bear-skin, and all she could wee of him was the dim silhouette of N his buck against the aky. “What ts it? she asked drowslly. hy “In anything the matter?” He could hardly command his voice to answer. “L's that aurora, over there,” he said, “No, it's gone now. It may come back. Ite right over there in the south—straight in front of you.” “But, my dear—my dear’—she per- sisted, “why should an aurora . . . Ip it because of the one we saw the hight you killed Kuscoe? im it that old nightmare that it brings back?” Sho was speaking quietly, her voice caressing him just as her hands were. Sho was like & mother trying to re- assure frightened child, Gi ‘snot that,” he said unstead- fly. “I don't know—I think I may be going mad, perhaps. 1 know I wasn't dreaming. I thought eo at first, but I know I'm not now.” ‘Then she felt his body stiffen, he dropped her hand and pointed out to the southern hori- son, “There,” he said, “look there!” What she saw was simply a pencil by of white light, pointing straight from } laughing and crying all at o pa oes ‘The party on the ice Was moving landward again. Even at My slow pace, the distance between was narrowing. Jeanne and young Fans! were coming on He saw her stop suddenly and throw an arm around the man’s neck. She was and were tears too, Phill that Fi ory of that in the man’s eyes, expected that, He knew w loved her. His mem- deck. to feo Fi A! nad oy release ‘anshaw sudden’ himecit from the girt ombrace come straight toward him. That Not the most surprising thing—sot that, nor the hand which Fanshaw was holding out to him. It was the look in the young mi face, ap the Nght from the «reat blazing beacon on the beach Illuminated it, There was a powerful . emotion working there, but no sign of amy conflict, no resistance, no reluctagee. It was the face of & man humble in the presence of «# imiract stripped oft bias gauptigt ahd yiey’s hand. it only just now,” he sald, “now that 1 see you here together, that I find it hard to beilleve, Because 2" all, and with rather than a hope. seen you here, together. you #o a thousand times, but now 1 do actually, wt to Ereve c y—-me ih partic for I'm the one who needs it most. We knew tho truth of that old story now, No, it wasn't Jeanne who told, It poor Hunter himself, in a letter, “ie written it long ago and it was among bis papers. 1 want you to tine. I think, read it som perkase, you will be able to for- when you a on him too.’ was siz months later, a biasing, bine July day, when thee maine unmoved by thé ment, seated as say ar as the saat, limp breeze, f - sn uttering just y i r' were Pe eh ged the horizon to the senith, and reach- junior ing an ‘eeepec pane jegrees. Com| with the stu; dous electrical displays that they Were uved to seeing in that winter aky, it was utterly insignificant, and fi it she turned to search his face iden alarm. Pi ve gee erg he command. iis excitement mou: with each word. eee wae She obec: cd reluctantly, but at what she saw her body became suddenly rigid and she stared as one might stare who sees a spirit. For the faint Pencil of white light swung on a pivot, dipped clear to the horizon, rose again and completed its circuit to the other le. She sat there beside him, breathleas, almost lifeless with suspense while that pencil traced its course back and forth from horizon to horizon, stopping sometimes on the zenith, to turn back upon — itself—sometimes continuing through unchecked. At last her breath burat from her in a great sob. She taped ape clung to him wildly. “Sifnals,” she gasped out. “From @ lght—from @ scarch-light.” twenty the be hoe fess,’ ve cont ‘ss said, “to Fudest sort of curl- osity about the act yor womething Hke that,’ ‘If you'll have it brou; here on deck I'll open it out for you.” The young fellow's pleasure wes almost boxis ae have it brought The breese was straight behing them and just about pee bed to compensate for the speed of vounel, and the air on deck was quite osatst- He drow a long, deep breath or two, 4} and his good arm tightened about her, “Well,” he said, his voice breaking in a shaky laugh, “If we are mad, wo are mad together, Jeanne, dear, and with the same imadness; and if we are dreaming, we are living in the same dream. Did you read what it said? Oh, no, of course you couldn’t—but T did, It's the old army wig-wag, and ft han been saying all sorts of things. Spelling out your name most of the time, What It Just sald was, Courage. They are coming.” CHAPTER XXIil. Unwinged. OR a while she where she wa cradied against his shoul- der, but presently she stood erect once more, pulled off one of her heavy gauntieta and with her bare palm pressed the tears out of eyes. ‘How far are they away now, ‘almost painfully vivia, and. looked into Jeanne’s fac same memory mirrored t! Hut young Caldwell oan them back to present no longer embarrassed, shy, tal. Aerial navigation was, ently, a subject hi all lo criticined th of the the material they were made of, pag ol Sle the dip of that—an ne of an summing up, be eal eT es rather pitifal, isn’t tt? way any primitive thin, me ave long to watt he tis ‘Remember, they said they were coming. They didn’t mean they were coming with the drift, They have set out afoot—so of them—over the ice. And, I don't be- ‘e Fanshaw who's sending those signals. He's probably been out on the ice for days, Ite vory rough and their progress would be slow,—not very much faster than that of the ship. Cayley got to hie feet. “We must bulid @ fire,” he said, “out bere—the biggest fire we can possibly contrive, to guide them by.” But before sho could answer they beard a rifle shot ring out in the atill alr, 'No," he cried, “the long walt ts over, Thank God they are bere. Fire, Jeanne! Fire the revolver! Let them know they are in time.” His lips trembied and teare glistened in his eyes, It was lying under her hand. There were only three tHdges but she fired them all into the ce ro. he cliff away they heard a dim hail in a human woloe= r broke sharply as if the It's your voice he'll want to hear.” But it wae a moment be- fore she could command it. She called his naine twice, and then time, with « different inflect! long, leaping Nicker of firelig! revealed @ little knot of figures one of the great ice crags the frozen harbor, One @ little in advance of dashed forward at @ run, ang to meet Vora IRile while Cayley stood tating the Are, dust Jeanne, in 3 i F i ei i il rH i z é § t i ? i E H iz be f i iY i : : 2 4 y it ae