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11
Simply Clung to Him.
SYNOPSIS.
Philip Cayley. accused of a crime of
rblch he Is not jjullty , resigns from the
army In disgrace and his affection for
hia friend , Lieut. Perry Hunter , turns to
hatred. Cayley seeks solitude , where he
perfects a flying machine. While soaring
over the Arctic regions , he picks up a
ooriously shaped stick he had seen In the
assassin's hand. Mounting again , he dis
covers a yacht anchored in the bay. De
scending near the steamer , he meets a
girl on an Ice floe. He learns that the
girl's name is Jeanne Fielding and that
the yacht has come north to seek signs
of her father , Captain Fieldjng , an arctic
explorer. A party from the yacht Is ma
king search ashore. After Cayley departs
Jeanne finds that he had dropped a cu
riously-shaped stick. Captain Planck and
the surviving crew of his wrecked whaler
are in hiding on the coast. A giant ruf
fian named Roscoe , had murdered Field
Ing and his two companions , after the ex
plorer had revealed the location of an
< mormous ledge of pure gold. Roscoe then
took command of the party. It develops
that the ruffian had committed the mur
der witnessed by Cayley. Roscoe plans
to capture the yacht and escape with a
oig load of gold. Jeanne tells Fanshaw ,
owner of the yacht , about the visit of the
ky-mam and shows him the stick left by
Cayley. Fanshaw declares that it is an
Eskimo throwing-stick , used to shoot
darts. Tom Fanshaw returns from the
earching. party with a sprained ankle.
Perry Hunter Is found murdered and
Cayley is accused of the crime but Jeanne
beMeves him innocent. A relief party goes
to find the searchers. Tom professes his
love for Jeanne. She rows ashore and
enters an abandoned hut , and there finds
Her father's diary , which discloses the ex
plorcr's suspicion of Roscoe. The ruf
fian returns to the hut and sees Jeanne.
He Is Intent on murder , when the sky
man swoops down and the ruffian flees.
Jeanne gives Cayley her father's diary
a 1 to read. The yacht disappears and Ros-
ooe's plans to capture it are revealed.
Jeanne's only hope is In Cayley. The
seriousness of their situation becomes ap
parent to Jeanne and the sky-man. Cay-
ley kills a polar bear. Next he finds a
clue to the hiding place of the stores.
CHAPTER XV. Continued.
"Why , I found an unmistakable ref
erence to it , and though the exact lo
cation wasn't given , it was plain that
three or four hours' exploring by day
light would enable us to find it. But
yen if I hadn't minded leaving you
aaleep here , unprotected , in the hut , I
doubt very much if I could have found
It at night But what's the mystery
yon were about to reveal to me ? "
"No. " she said ; "tell me more about
your discovery first. What was the
reference in the journal ? "
He rose and took down from the
shelf the big leather-bound volume
which was proving itself , with every
hoar , their greatest treasure.
"It's over here , toward the end , " he
said , "in that last winter when the
Walrus came oh , here we are. "
He seated himself on the bunk be-
aJde her , and began to read.
"March 10th. We have just spent
an arduous and fearful week upon
the taslc of unloading the wreck of the
whaler. The weather has been severe
bitterly c61d ( 10 degrees Fahren
heit being the mildest ) and three-
qnarters of a gale blowing most of the
time. The men are Inclined to be re-
"belllous over my driving them out to
T > > work in such weather , but I dared not
wait for it to moderate.
"When the Ice opens round the
whaler , she will go down like a plum
< net ; and if that event should have
happened before we unloaded her of
her stores , our plight would have been
utterly desperate. Of stores in the
ordinarily accepted sense , she had nut
a scanty supply , and those of a mis
erably inferior description ; but she
contained half a cargo of whale oil in
barrels , which now that they are
landed will settle the problem of fuel
for us as long as the last survivor of
our company can hope to remain alive.
And fuel is , after all , the only neces
sity which this land itself does not
supply us with. Of course we shall
have to forego the delights of bear
steak when our ammunition gives out ,
but walruses we can kill with har
poons. And with these and scurvy-
grass , which twe gather in the valley
every summer , there is no danger of
actual starvation.
"We hoisted the barrels of blubber
out of the whaler's hold with a hand
tackle , sledged them ashore along the
floe and the crown of the glacier to
Moseley's cave , which -seemed to be
the most convenient place to store
them temporarily. "
Cayley laid down the book and
turned to the girl.
"That's the place , I'm perfectly
sure , " he said. "It evidently faces
the glacier , but it must be very near
the beach , for they wouldn't have
hauled those barrels any further than
necessary. "
"Is that all he says about it ? "
"It's all he says directly , but there's
a reference just a little further along
which made me all the surer I was
right . . . Let's see. "
He opened the book again and ran
his eye down the page. " ' A hundred
weight or so of spermaceti and two
barrels of sperm oil we took directly
to the hut * here , this is what I was
looking for.
" 'The knowledge we get by experi
ence often conies too late to be of any
great service to us. I made some
mistakes in stripping the Phoenix ,
which I should not repeat now. For
instance , carrying her pilot house ,
with infinite labor , up to the cliff-
head for an observatory. It is thor
oughly impracticable for this purpose.
I doubt if I have visited it three times
since Mr. Moseley's death ' "
"He was the astronomer and botan
ist of father's expedition , " said the
girl.
girl.Cayley
Cayley read on : " 'But now that I
have learned my lesson , I have but
little to apply the knowledge to. The
Walrus is , I believe , the most utterly
wretched hulk that ever sailed the
seas ill-found , detestably dirty and
literally rotting to pieces. We shall ,
however , get enough planks and tim
bers out of her to build a shed or two
near the hut , for the more convenient
storage of our supplies. ' "
Again he closed the book. "That's
what I was looking for , " he said. "You
see they brought that stuff down from
the cave to these sheds ; so the cave
.would . be almost inevitably the first
hiding place they would think of
when the sight of the Aurora drove
them to hustle everything out ol
sight. "
"Whereabout on the cliff is the ob
servatory , Philip ? "
"I was wondering about that I've
flown across the cliff a number ol
times , but have never seen anything
of it He may have wrecked it ; ' taker
it down and used it for some othei
purpose. "
"No , " she said ; "he'd hardly have
had time for that There weren'1
many more pages to write in the jour
nal when he made that entry. "
She fell then into a little abstracted
silence , which the man did not kno\v
how to break. But presently she roused
herself and came fully back to the pres
ent , back to him.
"Did you succeed In accounting foi
the thing you askefl me about last
night , the mark on the map right here
where they built the hut afterward ? "
"I didn't find anything about it in
the journal , but this morning , before
breakfast , when I went outside the
hut , one glance at the fact of the cliff
accounted for it fully. The cliff is
split right here , from top to bottom ,
by a deep , narrow fissure. The fissure
is full of ice , which I suppose hasn't
melted fqr a thousand years. No sum
mer that they could have in a high lat
itude like this would ever melt it , cer
tainly. "
The girl laughed and rose from her
place at the rude table.
"Well , " she asked , "are you ready
for my discovery now ? "
She took down his pocket electric
bull's-eye from the shelf behind her ,
held out a hand to him and , on tip
toe , led him , with a burlesque exag
geration of mystery , out into the store
room. As completely mystified in
reality as she playfully pretended to
want him to be , Cayley followed.
She went straight across the store
room to the rear wall of the hut , the
wall that backed squarely against the
sheer surface of the cliff , flashed on
the bull's-eye for a second , apparently
to make sure that she had chosen the
right point in the wall , then , letting
go hia hand , she stooped and picked
up a stick of fire-wood which lay at
her feet. With this she struck pretty
hard upon the planking. The sound
which the blow gave forth was as
hollow as a drum.
Cayley started. "A cave ! " he ex
claimed. "A cave here ! Oh , I see.
It's a cold cellar they made by cutting
a hole in the ice that filled the fissure.
And why do you suppose they boarded
It up ? "
The girl laughed delightedly. Evi
dently she had not , as yet , developed
the whole of her discovery. She
flashed on the light again.
"Look ! " she commanded.
In the center-of a little circle of
wall which the bull's-eye now illum
inated Cayley saw the barrel of a
rusty hinge.
"You see , " she went on , "it's a door ,
and they only nailed it up the other
day. There's a nail-head somewherfe
here that's quite bright. I caught the
lint of it while I was rummaging be
fore breakfast , and that was what
made me look. "
Cayley darted back into the living
oem , returning almost Instantly with
the broken-handled pick.
In less than a minute , with a pro-
esting squawk , the rude door swung
open , and they saw before them just
what Cayley had predicted. A rather
high , but narrow cavity , the sides of
which were the naked rock of the
cliff , but the floor and ceiling solid
ice.
Despite the fact that the girl's ex
citement over the discovery of vthe
cave had , for a moment , carried Cay
ley along with it , he was not greatly
surprised , and not at all cast down
when , at the 'end of five minutes of
hasty exploration , it was made evi
dent to them that the ample supply of
stores which they sought was not to
be found here.
Jeanne herself would not , perhaps ,
have entertained so high a hope had
she learned of the reference to the
other cave which Cayley found in the
journal before she herself had chanced
upon the mouth of this one. As it
was , his theory that the stores were
to be found in a cave vaguely situated
along the glacier , made little impres
sion upon her , she was so sure that
they had been right here , und r their
hands.
When their investigation made it
clear that whether he was right or
not , certainly she was wrong , she was
bitterly disappointed. Cayley was
aware of that , even as they stood
here , side by side , with no light to see
her face by. She said nothing , or
very little , but he knew , nevertheless ,
that for just this moment all the life
and courage had gone out of her ;
knew that the slight figure there , so
close beside him , was drooping , trembling
'
bling a little.
He laid a steady hand upon her
shoulder. Almost instantly , under his
touch , she turned to him , caught with
both hands at the unbottoned edges of
the rough woolen jacket he wore , and ,
sobbing a little now and then , but oth
erwise In silence , simply clung to him.
He did not offer , with his arms , t * )
draw her any closer , to turn what was
a mere Instinctive appeal to the protec
tion of his strength and courage , into
an embrace. He kept a hand on each
of her shoulders , more by way of sup
port than anything else , and waited
a moment before he spoke.
"After all , " he said at last "what
we've got here is just so much clear
gain , and it will be immensely valu
able to us , though it isn't what we ex
pected. The fact that It is their super
fluity , the things they hadn't any par
ticular or immediate use for , doesn't
make what we've found here any the
less valuable to us. That pile of bear
skins there will supply what is , at this
moment , the most vital of our wants.
That big sack appears to contain
feathers ; and those walrus tusks will
serve any number of purposes forks
and spoons for one thine. As to that i
great lump of spermaceti , it will kee ]
us supplied with candles all througl
the winter. I can't imagine why the ]
didn't use it themselves , except 01
the theory that the longer they livet
here , the more they grew like beasts ;
the more content 'with the beast'i
habit of life , and the more inert aboui
taking the trouble to provide them
selves with such of the comforts ant
decencies of life as they might hav (
had. So you see , we may find among
the things they had no use for the
very ones that will help us most"
The cutting in the ice did not gc
very far back in the fissure , and thej
were soon at the end of it , and with
out having made any new discovers
of importance , either. There was t
little of cast-off articles of various
sorts , chiefly clothing which future
privations might make useful to them
There was a great frozen lump oJ
brownish-green vegetation , which thej
afterward identified as the edible
scurvy grass to which Captain Field
ing had referred in his journal.
That was all , or they thought-it was
but just as they were about to re
trace their steps to the hut , Cayley
happened to glance up. The roof ol
the cave was not very much higher
than it had to be to permit him tc
stand erect in it , something under sev
en feet ; but here at the further end
of it he saw a circular , chimney-like
hole , about two feet in diameter , lead
ing straight upward through the solid
ice in the fissure.
CHAPTER XVI.
Footprints.
Nature had nothing to do with the
formation of it , so much was clear
enough. It had been cut out by hand ,
and evidently with infinite labor. '
Flashing his bull's-eye over it did
not enable him to see the end of it ,
but it did reveal a series of notches
running straight up the two opposite
surfaces. The only purpose they could
serve would be to make possible the
ascent of the chimney.
Jeanne followed his gaze , and then
the two looked at each other , com
pletely puzzled.
"Some one must have made it , " she
said ; "and it must have been fright
fully hard to make a tunnel right up
through the ice like that. But what
in the world can they have made it
for ? "
"I've no idea , " he confessed , "but it
goes somewhere , and I mean to find
out where. "
"Don't follow it too far , " she cau
tioned. "It would only need one foot
slip off one of those icy notches to
bring about a dreadfully ugly fall. "
"One couldn't fall far down a tube
of that diameter , unless he had com
pletely lost his nerve , for there's al
ways a chance to catch one's self. And
you're to remember that I'm used to
falling. No , I'll be as safe up there as
I would on a turnpike. Yes , really. "
With that and a nod of reassurance ,
he scrambled up into the mouth of the
long chimney. He had taken his.
bull's-eye with him , so' the girl was
left in the dark. She dropped down
on the heap of bear skins to wait for
him.
him.She
She had no means of measuring the
time , and it seemed a perfectly in
terminable while before she heard
Cayley returning down the ice chim
ney. Had she known how long it real
ly was , she would have been justified
in feeling seriously worried about film ,
but not knowing , she attributed the
seeming duration of his delay to the
tedium of sitting in the dark , with
nothing to do. Even at that , she was
conscious of a feeling of relief when
she heard him call out to her once
more , cheerfully , albeit somewhat
hollowly , from the chimney's mouth :
"Jeanne , where are you ? "
"Here , just where you left me. "
"Here ! All the whilej You must
be half frozen. I've been gone the
better part of an hour. "
"I didn't know how long it was , and
I kept thinking you'd be back any
minute. . . . But where in the
world have you been ? "
By the time , she asked that question
they had groped their way back into
the storeroom and thence into the liv
ing room of the hut , and by now she
was looking at him in the full light of
flay.
flay.He
He dropped down , with a rather ex
plosive sigh , upon one of the bunks ,
ind poked tentatively at his thighs
and shoulders as if they were numb
svith fatigue.
"I think by a reasonable estimate , "
le said , "that chimney Is five miles
aigh. I kept going and going and go
ng , till began to believe that there
ivasn't any end to it ; or that , by some
magic or other , I slipped down a
rard as often as I went up one. But
: did get to ther end at last ; and I'll
jive you a thousand guesses as to
vhat I found there. "
"The observatory , " she hazarded.
'Oh ! but not really ? I did not mean
hat for an honest guess at all. It was
ust the first thing that came into my
lead. But how could they pull the
) ilot house of the Phoenix up through
hat little hole in the ice ? "
"Well , to tell the truth , I dan't be-
ieve they did , " he answered with
necking seriousness. "It's more like-
y that they took it to pieces , and then
Igged a boom and tackle up at the
: liff-head and hauled it up outside.
3ut when they got It up there they
mt It together again right across the
Issure , and then tunnelled down , or
ip , the whole depth of the clifr. It
nust have taken them weeks to do It ,
md when it was done they had an In-
iide connection between it and the
mt so that they were quite indepen-
lent of the weather. And it must
tave been a great place to make ob-
ervations from. "
"Have been ! " she echoed question-
ngly. , "Isn't it now ? "
"No , because it's all snowed and
rozen in. It's buried , I don't know
LOW many feet deep by this time , and
iark. of course. a a pocket But i
So He Set Off Alone.
everything inside is quite undisturbed
I doubt if a single member of the "Wai
rus' crew ever saw It , or even sus
pected that such a place existed. "
He unbuttoned his jacket and tool
from an inner pocket a scrap of pa
per.
"Being a methodical person , " he ex
plained , "I made an inventory. It's
really quite a respectable list. "
She seated herself beside him on
the bunk as if to read the paper.
"I imagine you will need an inter
preter , " he said. "I've half forgotten
what these tracks mean myself. My
hands were so stiff with the cold it
wasn't very easy to write. But that
first word is telescope. And then
there are the meteorological instru
ments , barometers , thermometers , and
so on , and the Phoenix's compass , sex
tant and chronometer , a microscope ,
a paraffine' oven and a big chunk of
paraffine , an oil lamp , a five-gallon can
about half full of oil , and a small
stove. There was a providential treas
ure for me in the form of a razor ,
which they used , I suppose , for cutting
microscopic sections with. I'm glad
they hadn't a microtone to do it prop
erly. "
"You didn't find a comb for me , did
jrou ? " she asked. "Because , unless
you did , or until you do , you won't
be allowed to use the razor. "
"I suppose I could make you one ,
or a sort of one. It would be genuine
ivory , anyway. "
He had come , apparently , to the end
of the list.
"Well , " she said , "I suppose we
might find something to do with al
most any one of those things ; some
of them will be useful , certainly. And
it's pleasant , somehow , to think of our
little pilot house , all snowed in , up
there on the cliff-head , and of our in
side passage leading up to it. "
"That's quite true , " he said. "I sup
pose it's all romantic nonsense , but it
does give one a certain feeling of se-
security. . . . However , " he went
on , "we're not reduced as yet to any
thing as intangible as that as a sub
ject for giving thanks. You haven't
seen the whole of my list yet. I're
saved the best till the last. "
He turned the paper over In his
hand as he spoke. She did not attempt
to read what he had written , but sat
there beside him , her hands clasped
about one knee , her eyes upon the
booted foot which was poised across
the other , and waited rather tensely
for him to tell her.
"It's not so very much , but it will
mean an immense lot to us. What
people die of in the arctic is not so
often disease or accident , or even , di
rectly , cold or starvation. They die
more often of disgust and weariness
and exhaustion. Your father knew
that , and he set apart from his gen-
sral stores some luxuries and delica
cies , or things that would seem to be
such to men in their plight , to be used
against emergency. I'm sure that's
why he took them up there and hid
: hem away. Part of them are left. I
wish he could have known to whom
iey were going to be of use. There's
i little cask with brandy In it , a good-
sized pot nearly full of beef extract , a
| ar of dried eggs , three tins of con-
lensed milk , a big ten-pound box of
Albert biscuit "
His voice broke off there sharply ,
jut without the downward inflection
she would have expected had he
eached the end. So she looked quick-
y and curiously up Into his face. As
luickly , her. eyes sought the bit of pa-
) er which still lay open in his hand.
"You didn't finish , " she said. "There
vas something else. "
"I thought too late. Oh ! it's noth-
ng , but it vcaught me rather , and I
nought I would spare you the twinge
: hat finding it had given me. I might
> etter have read it right out It was
i big plum pudding , in a tin , you |
mow Cross & Blaokwell's. But there .
it was , waiting , I suppose , to lend
some sort of an air of festivity to
their next Christmas. "
The girl rose from her seat beside \
him and going over to the window ,
stood for a while gazing up the
beach.
It was just about the same time in ,
the afternoon that it had been yester
day when he set out , a-wing , to find
her , and had come flying down out of
the sky to drive away the sudden
nameless terror which had beset her.
That thought led him , now to visua
lize some sticks of wood , rather too
large to carry , which had b.een lying
on the beach near where he had found
her. Thinking that it would be a
good time to get them and drag them
In , he got a harpoon line , and It was
the girl's question what he meant to
do with the rope , which caused him to
tell her what part of the beach he In
tended to visit He asked her then if
she cared to come with him , but , after
a moment's hesitation , she declined.
"It will be high time for supper be
fore you can get back , " she said , "and
I'd better stay here and get it ready ,
that is , unless I can help you. "
So he set off alone.
For awhile the occupation of setting
their disordered living room to rights
and getting the supper started were
sufficient to take the whole of the
girl's attention. But later , when it was
a question merely of waiting for the
pot to boil , and of not watching it so
that it would boil sooner , she moved
restlessly to the door and stood there ,
before the hut , gazing down the beach
in the direction Cayley had taken. He
was already out of sight around the
headland.
She wished she had gone with
Philip , and she gazed with straining
eyes toward the narrow bit of slant
ing beach around the base of the head
land which was the place where he
must appear. He was not to be ex
pected yet , not for a long time , prob
ably , for his progress , dragging Ihose
great sticks he had set out to bring
home , must be slow.
And then , even as she looked , she
saw him , not moving slowly with his
burden , but running running at his
topmost speed , like a man in fear of
something.
Instinctively she moved forward to
meet him , and this move of hers en
abled him to see her. He slackened
his pace instantly , and waved her
back toward the hut. She obeyed that
imperative gesture of nis , without hes
itation , but still remained in the door
way , watching'him as he rapidly drew
nearer.
When he had got near enough so
that she could see his face and read ,
more or less , what she saw there , she
again moved forward to meet him ,
and this time he did not wave her
back. When he came within arm's
reach of her , he caught her and held
her tight in his two hands.
"What is it , Phjlip ? " she asked ,
searching the depth of his eyes and
trying to plumb the horror she sa-w
in them. "What happened out there ? "
"Nothing happened. But I saw
something there that made me anx
ious for your safety. . . . It's all
right now you're safe. Nothing has
happened here , has there , while I have
been gone ? "
"Nothing. What could have hap
pened , Philip ? . It can't be anything
that you're afraid to tell me , " she
went on , for he had not answered her.
"There can't be anything you'd be
afraid to tell me now not after yes
terday. "
"Oh , no ; It'sjiot so bad as that , but
[ saw that I had been wrong to leave
you , even for that little while. You
see the sight of the place brought
back to my mind what you had told
me yesterday of the terror you had
telt there , and of the thing that yon
jaw In the twilight And so I looked
CTO BE CONTINUED. )
