SYNOPSIS.
Plillip Cayley , accused of a crime of
* ? hich he is not guilty , resigns from the
inny In disgrace and his affection for
ils friend , Lieut Perry Hunter , turns to
hatred. Cayley seeks solitude , where he
perfects a flying machine. While soaring
over the Arctic regions , he picks upi a
curiously shaped stick he had seen In the
assassin's hand. Mounting again , ho dls-
: overs a yacht anchored In the bay. De
scending near the steamer , he meets a
flrl on an Ice floe. He learns that the
rlrl'a name Is Jeanne Fielding and that
& yacht has come aertjt to seek signs
Of her father , Captain Fielding , an arctic
ixplorer. A party from the yacht is ma
ting search ashore. After Cayley departs
Jeanne finds that he had dropped a cu
riously-shaped stick. Captain Planck and
he aurvlvlng- crew of his wrecked whaler
re In hiding on the coast A giant ruf-
man namedRoscoe , had murdered Fielding
usd hl two companions , after the ex-
) lorer had revealed the location of an
i mormous ledge of pure gold. Roscoe then
took command of the party. It develops
that the ruffian had committed the mur-
0 r witnessed by Cayley. Roscoe plans
to capture the yacht and escape with a
Trig load of gold. Jeanne tells Fanshaw ,
woer of the yacht , about the visit of the
[ Icy-man and shows him the stick left by
ayley. Fanshaw declares that it Is an
'iklmo throwing Itlck , used to shoot
i rts. Tom Faaufca-w returns from the
jearchlng party frith a sprained ankle.
Perry Hunter In found murdered and
ayley Is accusfl.1 of the crime but Jeanne
relieves him intftcent. A relief party goes
io find the senrchers. Tom confesses his
love for Jeaitae. She rows ashore and
nien an abandoned hut.
CHAPTER VII.Continued. .
Tfce fight of It might irell N have
canted astonishment or alarm in the
feirl' wind. But It was neither alarm
nor astonishment that her next act
jexp * ased. She dropped dowte on her
amees beside the rude wooden bunk ,
jlrtw the chest up close In the tight
embrace of her young arms , laid het-
faheek against the cold polished sur
face of its blackened wood , and cried.
Every question that might have
asked itself how the thing could
Save" come there , and what its coming
might pretend to herself or to the
other of the Aurora's people was
I ,1 I sw pt away In a sudden rush of filial
affection and regret which the sight
of It instantly awoke. It had reached
fter with that sudden poignant stab
of memory which inanimate objects ,
familiar by long association , seem to
be more potent to call up than the
.very persons of the friends with whom
they are associated. The sight of her
father himself coultS hardly have had
BO instantaneous and overwhelming
Jin effect upon her as the sight of this
old chest which was one of the earli
est of her associations with him.
1 It had always stood , until he had
takfcn It with him on that last voyage
Of his , upon a certain farther corner
of Ms desk in the old library. It was
pfl of those objects of a class that
children always love smooth , pol-
isftftd , beautiful ; beautiful and , at the
saise time , defying curiosity.
* II was quite a masterpiece of cabi
net work. No hinges were visible ,
and the cover fitted so closely upon
jthe box inself that the line which
separated them was hard to discover.
jAnd there was no trace of keyhole or
( Jock. To those uninitiated into its
decret , it defied any attempt to
'open it
Presently she seated herself on the
Jnmk , took the little chest on her
knees and set about opening it. Be
tween the cold and her excitement she
found this rather a difficult thing to
do , though her mind never , never
hesitated over the slightest detail of
the necessary formula of procedure.
She knew in just what order to press
in those innocent-looking little orna
mental tacks in the brass binding ; re
membered the right moment to turn
the be * up on its end and let the
just released steel ball roll down its
channel to the pocket where it must
lie before the last pressure upon the
last spring would prove effective. She
no more faltered over it than she
would have faltered over her alphabet
Ana at last , when her numbed fin
gers had completed their task , the
counter-weighted lid rose slowly by
Itself , just as It had used to , and re
vealed to her swimming eyes the con
tents of the Interior.
Up to the moment she had not real
ized what the finding of the dispatch
box meant It had not occurred to
I or that a full account of her father's
expedition , a .narrative which would
, perhaps , to the morning of the
day of all , was lying here , right
her eyes.
13ut now when the cover opened and
c saw beneath it a thick volume ,
ound in red morocco , she realized
' : at here , under her hand , was the
ery object , in search of which the
Xurora had set out upon her perilous
royage.
The first sight of her father's clear ,
erect , precise handwriting warmed
her with a sudden courage. But even
this new inspiration of courage did
not make her strong enough to turn
back and read the last entry in that
tragic journal first. She tried to do
it , but the will failed her. So she be
gan at the beginning. Once she had
plunged into the fascinating narra
tive , the whole of the outside world
faded away from her. She was oblivious
to the fact that the darkness outside
was no longer the mere darkness of
the fog ; oblivious to the rising wind
that poured its icy stream through the
leaky walls of the hut and made the
candle flicker ; oblivious , even to the
very sound which she had meant to
wait for the sound of Tom's voice
calling out to her from the yacht , and
the sound of other , more alarming ,
nearer voices.
They all fell on deaf ears as she
turned page after page of that pre
cious record of her father's life. It
was written , in the main , in the scien
tific , observant , unimpassioned temper
which she knew so well. He chron
icled those days of peril , when their
ship , crushed in the ice , and only kept
from sinking by that very ice , which
had just destroyed her , was drifting
along in the 'pack , ' to what seemed
certain destruction , as quietly and as
explicitly as he did the uneventful
voyage through Behring strait. The
man's courage was so deeply element
al In him that he could not be self-
conscious about it.
He told of the land , the strange , un
charted shore , whose discovery offer
ed them a respite , at least , from that
destruction ; told how he got his re
maining stores ashore and built the
hut , where , in all human probability ,
he and his companions were to spend
the rest of their lives.
Finally she reached the record of
the day when he had consigned to the
I ,
a Neither 4Jarm Nor Astonishment That. Her Next "Act Expressed.
nk *
" < rXim * S .AW
. ttVxc
/IN iOToeyTxteucca s co
sea the bottle containing the chart of
the coast and the account of his
plight , together with the course which
the relief ship must take , should such
a relief ship be sent out , to have any
hope at all of reaching them.
"I suppose , " his narrative for this
day concluded , "there Is hardly one
chance in ten thousand that my mes
sage will ever 'be picked up , and cer
tainly not one in a million that It will
be found in time to bring an effective
relief. However , it helps to keep the
others cheerful , and that Is the main
At the close of the day's entry was
a single line which contracted her
heart with a sharp spasm of pain.
"This is Jeanne's birthday , " it said.
She resumed her reading presently ,
and came to the point where the Wal
rus people entered Into the narrative ;
their plight , their rescue and their
welcome by the three men , who by
now were the only survivors of the
original expedition.
She was reading faster now , with
none of those little meditative pauses
that had marked her progress through
the earlier pages of the Journal , for
the sinister termination of the narra
tive began to foreshadow itself dark
ly , from the moment the first mo
ment of the appearance of the Walrus
people on the scene. Her father's de
scription of the man Roscoe , of the
expression that had been plain to read
in his face as he had listened to the
account of the gold-bearing ledge
across the glacier , gave her a shudder
ing premonition ; apparently , her fa
ther had experienced the same feeling
himself. Day after day Roscoe's name
appeared , always accompanied by
some little phase of misgiving.
For just one day this dread seemed
to have been lifted from Captain Field
ing's spirit. That was the day the sun
came back to them , putting an end to
their long arctic night. "It has been
a hard winter , " he wrote , "and I am
glad it is over. The hardest thing
about it has been our sleeplessness ,
from which we have all suffered. To
day we have enjoyed a change , having
taken a walk along the beach. Even
Roscoe seems humanized a little by a
return of the frank sunshine , and may ,
perhaps , develop Into a tolerable com
panion. Tomorrow I have promised ,
if it is fine , to guide them across the
glacier to the gold ledge. "
It was the next to the last entry in
the journal. She turned the page ,
paled and pressed her lips tight to
gether when the array of blank pages
before her told her that she had
reached the end. Then she read the
last words her father had ever writ
ten.
"Took the Walrus people to the
ledge today. Have no heart to de
scribe the scene that they enacted
there. The man Rosco'e certainly
means to kill me. If it were not for
my conviction that the danger from
him is largely personal to myself , that
he means me and no other , probably ,
for his victim , I think I should have
him shot as a measure of justifiable
prevention. He , is not a man , but a
great sinister brute literally sinister ,
for he is left-handed. I shall walk
warily , and hope the crisis may soon
be over. " Evidently that part of his
wish had come true.
The book slipped out of the girl's
hands , and she sat , with horror-widen
ed eyes , staring at the candle , until it
guttered and went out. Slowly , the
outside world began to take its place
again around her. She knew that she
was shivering , half-frozen , that the icy
wind was whining through the cracks
in her rude shelter.
She thought she heard seme one
moving about outside , and that
thought brought her quickly to her
feet. She made her way to the door
of the hut , called out ; waited a breath
less instant and cried aloud in sud
den terror.
CHAPTER VIII.
Apparitions.
Roscoe did not pause to investigate
the effect of his blow , nor to waste a
second one. If the man who had con
fronted hiiu there in the companionway -
way was dead , so much the better. If
lie were only half-dead , the job could
be finished at any time. He was out
of the way for the present at least.
Roscoe hurried on , searching state
rooms and passageways and finally
the crew's quarters , forward.
When he had satificr1- IT'--sir taaL
lie uiiu his men weTe in undisputed
possession of the yacht , he emerged
on deck again by the forward hatch
way , and found Captain Planck al
ready there. He directed him to go
below with Schwartz , who had been
engineer aboard the whaler , and get
steam up as promptly as possible. He
himself remained on deck , directing
the unloading and stowage of those
precious golden slabs that the rest
of the party were bring out in boats
from the shore.
"We've got It all , Roscoe , unless you
want them barrels of whale oil , " a
man in the last boat sang out as they
came alongside.
"We'll leave them to pay for this
nickel-plated ship , " Roscoe answered.
' 'Come ! Look alive and get aboard.
We'll be ready to start as seen as we
can get a little daylight. "
ile looked them over , numbered
them as if they had been so man.
sheep , noted that they were all here ,
except poor Miguel ; Planck and
Schwartz were down toiling at the
boilers.
"Stay here till I come back , " he
commanded. "I'm going below to see
that everything's stowed all right.
When I come back I want to talk to
you. "
He disappeared down the after
hatchway ; switched on a light and in
dulged in a long , satisfied look at the
great masses of precious metal which
were stacked , according to his direc
tions , in the strongroom.
His purpose in coming down here
was threefold. He meant to see that
the gold was stored correctly and he
meant to lock the room up , so that its
precious contents would not be tam
pered with , and bring the key away
with him. He was not afraid that any
of his crew would try to steal It , but
he thought the moral effect of having
it locked away where it was inacces
sible to them , and of his keeping the
keyin his own possession , would be a
help in maintaining his prestige as
commander. They knew the sea bet
ter than he did , just as he knew the
nature of gold-bearing rock. It was
necessary to do something to bolster
up his position as chief of the party
and keep it above dispute. He did not
want to have to kill any of them yet.
The Aurora would be short-handed
enough as it was.
But there was one more reason for
that hurried trip to the strongroom.
He wanted to be sure that a certain
rosewood box had come aboard along
with the treasure and what few stores
they were taking away with them.
That little box had occupied much
of his leisure since the day when he
had murdered the owner of it. He had
sometimes wished that when it came
into his hands that day he had yield
ed to his first impulse to shatter it ,
for the thing had always mocked him
coquetted with him.
He had often seen it lying open on
Captain Fielding'.s table in the tiny
walled-off cubby hole of a room they
called the captain's cabin , while the
captain himself was writing up his
-journal or working upon his charts.
He had , during that first winter , fre
quently thought of trying to open it ,
should the opportunity offer itself.
After the murder , when he took that
little room for his own quarters , he
found the box and preserved it with
the idea that now , at least , he would
get the better of it. He knew what
its contents were well enough Cap
tain Fielding's charts and journal , and
he had no curiosity concerning them.
But the secret mechanism of the box
itself tantalized him , and he meant
some day to solve it. Once he had
done so , he would kick the thing to
pieces and destroy its contents.
That was all there was to It at first ,
but during the next winter , when the
long night kept them prisoners in
their narrow quarters , the mystery
of that little rosewood box took on
an added importance to him and to
the others , out of all proportion to any
effect which the solution of it could
have. One by one , with the exception
of the Portuguese , they trie'd. Hour
after hour they labored with it , and in
variably they failed.
The rest of them gave it up , and
their admitted defeat gave Roscoe an
other incentive for solving the thing
himself , for he meant to leave no
stone unturned to convince them that
they were fools and weaklings ; that
he , Roscoe , was the only man among
them. Such a conviction was neces
sary to his leadership.
It was toward the end of that win
ter that the Portuguese made a sug
gestion destined to bear fruit. "It's
a curse that has sealed up that box , "
he said. "You can't open it , and if-
you break it , the curse will kill you. "
He evidently believed implicitly
in this theory , for no persuasion could
induce him to touch the box himself.
Gradually the others had shown , by
little involuntary acts , shrinkings and
glances , that Miguel's belief was in
fecting them. Sometimes , after a long
succession of sleepless , lightless days ,
Roscoe found himself believing it , too ,
and regarding that little box as tne
sealed-up casket of the murder he had
done upon the owner of it. The crime
was there inside.
To overcome that feeling , he had
His lnt rec . ntm , however , in ma
king sure that the box had really been
brought aboard the Aurora was not
superstitious , but wholly practical.
They were leaving most of their stores
behind them , as there was no time
either to transport them to the Au
rora or to destroy them. With these
stores and with the shelter afforded
by the hut and the little clump of sur
rounding out-buildings , it was prob
able that some members of the Au
rora's party , at least , would survive
the winter. If a relief ship should
arrive the next summer , or even the
summer thereafter , it would probably
find some one on this desolate shore
who could tell the story of the disap
pearance of the Aurora and form a
mere or less definite surmise as to
the cause of it. That rosewood box
had Captain Fielding's journal in it a
journal that had been written up to
V
_ _
ry morning when Roscoe had
murdered him. Its discovery would
go a long way toward bridging the
gap which Roscoe meant , to leave In
their departing trail. In short , if that
rosewood box were left behind , Ros
coe would always feel that he was in
more or less danger of detection. And
he didn't mean to have a thing like
that hanging over him.
Consequently , when he discovered
that the box was not on board , and
that his particular injunctions con
cerning it had been either neglected
or disobeyed , he came raging up on
deck again , a most formidable figure ,
which caused his companions , harden
ed ruffians though they were , to cower
and shrink away from him.
In a torrent of furious blasphemy ,
he demanded to know why that box
had not been brought aboard ; and the
concentrated lees of his rage he
emptied at last upon the two men
whom he had ordered to do it.
"Now , " he concluded , when the tor
rent had spent itself , "you go ashore ,
you two. Yes , you , Carlson I mean
you and you , Rose ; go ashore now
and get It"
Then , after a momentary silence ,
he raged out the command again ,
amid a foul flood of abuse.
But still they made no move to
obey , and the big Swede , in evident
terror , answered him. "I won't get
it , Roscoe. If you want that box , you
can get it yourself. "
"What in hell do you mean ? " the
leader stormed. But his voice , even
as he spoke , lost its confident tang of
authority.
"You tell him , " said Carlson , nod
ding to his companion , Rose. Evident
ly it was Rose who had told the story
to the other members of the party. He
was a squatly built man with a stub
born jaw , and Planck , in the days of
his command , had always disliked him
as that most undesirable pest that can
be found in a forecastle a sea law
yer.
yer."What
"What did you leave the box in the
hut for ? " he demanded. "He might
not have come back if you had left
it in the cave. "
"Come back ! " echoed Roscoe , with
a growl.
"That's what I said. We went to
the hut to get it , and there was a
light inside , and there he sat , just like
he used to. And he had the box
"
open
"He ! Who do you mean ? " There
was no trace of truculence in Roscoe's
voice now. He spoke as though his
throat was dry.
"It was Captain Fielding ; Mm to
the life. And , yet , It was different
from the way hej used to be. We
couldn't see it very well. Its face was
sideways and the light was behind it ,
and it looked smaller and thinner
more more like a woman. ( If Rose
had had the word 'spiritual' in his vo
cabulary , he would have used it. In
default of It , he gave up trying to
express just what he meant. ) Any
way , there he sat with the box open
beside him , and that red book of his
open on his knees. Go back for it ?
Well , I guess not"
There was a momentary silence aft
er he had finished , and Roscoe could
feel it , as it stretched itself out to the
length of half a minute or so , the chill
of their terror enveloping him. To
throw it off , he blustered , Btonned al
and abused them for a pack of liars.
But in the end he sprang down Into
one of the boats , and said he would
fetch the box himself. Whether ha-
believed their story , or not , It was
the only thing for him to do.
As he pulled shoreward ho tried
hard to convince himself that he did
not believe it ; that Rose and Carlson
had probably forgotten all about the
box , and had trumped up the story to
avoid the necessity of going back for
It
He beached his boat , scrambled
ashore and set out walking doggedly
along in the direction of the hut The
fog was still all but impenetrable , even
to his practised vision , but he knew
the shore like the palm of his band ,
and he trudged on without -pause ,
until he was within ten paces , per
haps , of his destination.
But there he faltered and stopped ,
turned about , under an irresistible im
pulse of fear , and would have fled
had not sheer necessity compelled
him to stop again. There was a light ,
a diffused yellow glow , faint but un-
mistakale , shining out of the windows
of the hut.
He knew he could not go back to
the Aurora without that box ; it was
necessary both to his future safety and
his present command of the situation.
His one hold upon those sullen follow
ers of his depended upon his being im
pervious alike to terror and to defeat
If he were to go back now without
accomplishing his purpose , it would
only be a question of days before they
murdered him. They all hated him ,
enough for that , he knew. \
Yet , even under that necessity , ift
was three or four minutes before , at
the command of his burly will , he be
gan creeping forward on hands and
knees toward the lighted window of
the hut.
And when he reached a point where
he could command its Interior , hia
knees slipped out from under him and
he lay prone upon the icy beach , hia
face buried in his outstretched arms.
For those two sailors had told the
truth.
Presently he drew himself up and
squatted back on his haunches , star-
Ing. Human or not , the figure there
in the hut seemed unaware of his
presence. It was staring at the ex
piring flame of the candle In profound
abstraction. When it stirred , as pres
ently it did , it was with a natural ,
human motion. And then the candle
went out.
In the few seconds of silence which
followed , his terror returned upon
him with full force. But it went
away as suddenly as It had come , and
with its recession there surged up In
him a wave of brutish anger. It was
no ghost that had sat in contempla
tion over the contents of that box ,
for it was moving now , with human
footsteps faltering , uncertain foot
steps , at that. And when It appeared ,
just visible and no more , outside the
doorway , it called aloud In a human
voice a woman's voice.
( TO BE CONTINUED. )
Circumstantial Evidence.
"He says that he thought all day
yesterday that it was Saturday. "
"Do you think he really did ? "
"I guess so , he took a bath. "
\
indulged in a Long , Satisfied Look. * , -
j g ya ag tgwT jqgaarg ar p . , -
