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About Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930 | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1911)
fir li I m ' ! I ! ' The Yacht Had Disappeared. sra H4SW.ROSSBR I9IO BY TMe CENTURY CO COPYRIGHT 1910 BY THE. SUCCESS CO 8 SYNOPSIS. Cayley. accused of a crime of drnlch he la not guilty , resigns from the jinny In disgrace and his affection for Ills friend , Lieut. Perry Hunter , turns to hatred. Cayloy seeks solitude , where he Jtarfects a flying machine. "Wlille soaring < iver the Arctic regions , he picks up a { furiously shaped stick he had seen In the 4sassln'3 hand. Mounting again , he dls- tiovers a yacht anchored In the bay. De- ftcendlng near the steamer , he meets a on an ice floe. He learns that the name is Jeanne Fielding and that yacht has come morth to seek signs ol her father. Captain Fielding , an arctic ' * * plorer. A party from the yacht is ma- I klftg" search ashore. After Cayley departs Jftfcuno finds that he had dropped a cu- ti nlly-haped stick. Captain Planck and tlw surviving crew of his wrecked whaler mS9 In hiding on tha coast A giant ruf fian named Koscoe , had murdered Field intf and his two companions , after the ex- fflorer had revealed the location of an enormous ledge of pure gold. Roscoe then flook command of the party. It develops lEhat the ruffian had committed the mur der witnessed by Cayley. Roscoe plan : . I o capture the yacht and escape with a 9lg load of gold. Jeanne tells Fanshaw , OWner of the yacht , about the visit of the Sky-man and shows him the stick left by Gayley. Fanshaw declares that It is an J&kixio throwing-sttck , used to shoot daeKs. Tora Fanshaw returns from the rtarching 3 > arty with a sprained ankle. 3P rry Hunter ia found murdered and 'Cayley Is Accused of the crime but Jeanne Relieves Jgjra innocent. A relief party geese $ o find fAe searchers. Tom professes his lave fo ? Jeanne. She rows ashore and rtnters an abandoned hot , and there finds Her father's diary , which discloses the ex- Slorer's suspicion of Roscoe. The ruf- an returns to the hut and sees Jeanne. He is Intent on murder , when the sky- Ittian swoops down and the ruffian flees. 'Jeanne ' gives Cayier her father's diary read. CHAPTER X. Continued. The scene before his eyes was beau tiful , with that stupendous beauty that taaly the arctic can attain. The har bor and beyond It , far out to sea jclear to the horizon , was filled with Jgreat plunging , churning masses of lre ; , all drenched In color by the low- "hanging arctic sun violet , rose , pure golden-yellow and emerald-green , and ft white whose Incandescence fairly tabbed the eye. And as those great moving masses ground together , they flung , high Into the air , broad ifhimmering veils of rose-colored apray. Of the floe , which they had consid ered stable as the land itself , there way no longer any sign. There was 'nothing ' there , nothing at all to greet their eyea. to seaward , but the savage "beauty of the ice. The yacht had disappeared. CHAPTER XI. The Aurora. "I tell you sir , the thing Is beyond Iranian possibility. There is no help : * -no human help in the world. I jwonld swear to that before God. But I think you must know it as well as I 4o. " Captain Warner , standing upon rk ) Aurora's bridge , was the speaker. . The two Fanshaws , father and son , jhtlr faces gray with despair , turned pwy and looked over the great mass- tp of loose , churning fleld-ice , which , the sea out to the utmost hori- . confirmed the captain's words. "How long " Tom Fanshaw began , possible chance I would take it , there Iff none cone in the world. then he paused , moistened his lipd and rubbed them roughly with his hand "How long , " he repeated , "shall we have to wait before it opens up ? " "It won't open up again this sea son not if I know anything about the arctic , " said the captain. "It will freeze , though , " Mr. Fan shaw said , "freeze into a solid pack that we could cross afoot. How long shall we have to wait for that ? " "It's hard to tell. Generally in this latitude the pack is pretty solid by the first of September. But that warm current which caught Fielding's ship , which caught the Walrus the current which makes , every summer apparently , that long gap of open wa ter which enabled us to reach the land that Fielding reached that cur rent would keep loose field-ice floating about for at least another month. " Tom Fanshaw's eyes had almost the light of madness in them. "But she can't live a month ! " he cried. "She's alone , unarmed ! She has no food ; no shelter but those bare huts ! " "The Walrus people doubtless left some stores there , If she could find them , " said Captain Warner. "But , still , what you say is perfectly true. She can hardly bope to keep a live a week. " "Then , " said Tom , in dull , passion ate rebellion "then , in some way or other , we must go back to her. If you won't go if you won't take the Au rora back , I'll take one of the little boats and go myself ! " "If you want to commit suicide , " said Captain Warner , "you could do it less painfully with a revolver. The small boat would not live 30 seconds after we put her over the side. You know that , if you are not mad. 4s for the Aurora herself , .if she had not been built the way she is , she would have been crushed hours ago. And if I were to lower the propeller and start the engines , they would simply twist the screw off of her before she had gone a ship's length , and leave us helpless in the event of our ever find ing open water. We may never live to find it , but there's a chance that we will. There are more than 30 lives that I am responsible for aboard this yacht , and I mean to live up to that responsibility. If we ever do find open water , then I'll do whatever you say. I will take you to Point Barrow and the yacht can winter there. Then when the pack is solid , if you can find dogs and sledges , you can at tempt the 'journey across the ice. I don't believe it can be done. I don't believe there is a chance in a hun dred that any single member of the party that set out would live to reach that shore. That , however , is not my affair. "Or , if you wish , we can take the yacht back to San Francisco , refit her and come back next summer. I think that with our knowledge of the cur rents and where the open water is , we might get back to Fielding bay by the first of July. Then we can find whatever there is to find. " His own voice faltered there , and there were tears hi the deep weather- beaten furrows of his cheeks. "God knows , " he concluded , "if there were not unless we could fly through the air. " It was only an hour since they had ascertained , beyond the shadow of a doubt , that Jeanne was not aboard the Aurora. Until Tom had recovered consciousness , the others had aater- tained little doubt that she was safely hidden somewhere aboufc the ship. Cayleys warning , together with the confession of the Portuguese , Miguel , had caused then ) to steal alongside the Aurora as silently as possible. Not a word had been spoken by any of tke party , and the sound of the rising wind had Downed the creak of their oars. HaJf a dozen well-armed men had stolen aboard over the bows to reconnoiter. Making out the unfamiliar figures of the Walrus people on deck , and knowing that they had a fight on their hands , they had worked their way , un observed , to a position amidships. Here , under cover of a brisk revolver- fire , they had made it possible for the rest of their party to get aboard. The Walrus people , several of whom were below , came tumbling up on deck at the sound of firing , and their whole party entrenched itself in the after-deck house. They had found arms of various sorts aboard the Au rora , and made a spirited resistance before they were finally overpowered. The Aurora's people , under the coolheaded - headed command of Warner and the elder Fanshaw , had proceeded in a brisk , scientific , military style that had spared them many serious casual ties. There were a number of flesh wounds when it was over , and one or two of a more serious nature. None of them had been killed. The Walrus people , however , had not surrendered until their plight was wholly desperate. Only five of them were left alive , and two of these were mortally wounded when the struggle ceased. ' The uninjured were heavily ironed and locked up in the steerage. All the wounded friends and foes alike were turned over to the care of the yacht's surgeon and a couple of volun teer assistants from among the crew. Altogether , it was two or three hours after the Aurora's people had regained undisputed possession of the yacht be fore it was possible to form any defi nite idea of what had happened. In the excitement and the necessity of everybody doing two or three things at once , Tom Fanshaw and his serious plight were not discovered , until he himself , having partly regained con sciousness , uttered a low moan for help , which was heard by a chance passerby. The gale , which had been raging all this while , had gone screaming by unheeded , and it was not until dawn that the horrified conquerors of the yacht discovered that there was no land in sight. It was several hours after that , not , indeed , until the captain had worked out their reckoning from an observa tion , before they realized that they were 100 miles away from their anchorage of the previous evening , and that their return was hopeless. Old Mr. Fanshaw gave his arm to his son , helped him down from the bridge and thence to the now deserted smoking room , forward. Tom sub mitted to be led blindly along , and did not demur when his father halted be side a big leather sofa and told him to lie down upon it. Since that mo mentary outburst of his upon the bridge , the young man had been un naturally calm. His muscles , as.he . lay there now upon the sofa , seemed relaxed ; his eyes were fixed , almost dull. Through a long silence his father sat there watching him , but there was no daAvn of a correspoading calmness in his face. It had'aged whole years over night. "It's strange to me , " he said , "that we ever recovered possession of this yacht at all , let alone that we were able to recover it without it costing us the life of a single man. This gang must have had a leader , and a clever one. They way he maneuvered his- men to keep them out of sight while he drew away first one party and then the other from the yacht was a piece of masterly strategy. He worked it out perfectly in every detail. He got possession of the yacht without losing a man , without even firing a shot that might give the alarm. And even with the warning we had and with the help of the fog , I don't see how we defeated a man like that. His success must have gone to his head and made him mad. " "He was probably killed in the first volley our people fired when they got aboard , " said Tom dully. "He alone could have accounted for half a dozen of you , if he'd ever had a chance a giant like that. " "A giant ! " "I think he must have been the leader , " said Tom. "He was the first man to come aboard , certainly. " "But what makes you call him a giant ? " "Because he literally was. He struck me down with just one blow , and as he raised his arm to striie I saw that his shoulder-cap was above the level of my eyes ; and I pass for a tall man. " His father abandoned the subject abruptly , and for a while contrived to talk of other things ; of tfte details of the fight and how different members of foe crew had borne themselves. But his mind was filled with a new terror , and as soon as he could feel that his son was in condition to be left alone , he left him , with a broken word of excuse. He must either set this new terror at rest , or know the worst at once. There had been no one , either among the survivors or the slain of the Walrus party , who in any way resembled the monster Tom had. described. An hour later he went back to the bridge to talk again with Captain Warner. He thought that they had sounded the depth of despair that former time when they had talked to gether there , but in this last hour he had sounded a new abyss beneath it all. He knew now why the yacht had been so easily taken. He knew all the details of the devilish plan which had so nearly succeeded. More than that , he knew the story of the man Roscoe from the time when Captain Planck had taken him aboard the Walrus , down to the hour last night when he had sprung into his boat again and pulled shoreward. Captain Planck was dying , and old Mr. Fanshaw's questions had enabled him to enjoy the luxury of a full confession. So they knew now , those two men who stood there on the bridge , white- lipped , talking over the horror of the thing they knew that Jeanne was not alone upon that terrible frozen shore. The man Roscoe was there , too. A sound on the deck below attracted Mr. Fanshaw's attention. Tom , with the aid of a heavy cane , was limping precariously along the deck toward the bridge ladder , and , to their amaze ment , when he looked up at them , they saw that somehow , his face had cleared. There was a grave look of peace upon it. "I've thought of something , " he said , after he had climbed up beside them "I've thought of something that makes it seem possible to go on liv ing , and even hoping. " The two older men exchanged a swift glance. He was not to know about Roscoe. If he had found some thing to hope for , no matter how il lusory , he should be allowed to seep it to hug it to his breast , in place of the horrible , torturing vision of the human monster which the other two men saw. "What is it you've thought of , Tom ? " his father asked unsteadily. "It's it's Cayley. He's there with her ; I'm sure he IB. " He turned away a little from Captain Warner and spoke directly to his father. "I don't know how I know , but it's as if I saw them there together. He has fallen in love with her , I tliink. I'm quite sure she has with him. I wanted to kill him for that yesterday , but now " his voice faltered there , but the look in his eyes did not change the light of a serene , .untroubled hope. "He's there with her , " he went on , "and with God's help he'll keep her alive until we can get back with the relief. " He said no more , and he clutched the rail tight in his gauntleted hands and gazed out north , across the ice. CHAPTER XII. Cayley's Promice. For this small mercy Cayley thanked God. The girl did not understand. She was rubbing those sleepy eyes of hers and putting back , into place , stray locks of hair that were in the way. "The floe must have gone to pieces , " she said , "and they've drifted off in the fog without knowing 'it. I suppose there's no telling when they'll be back ; very likely not for hours. " He did not risk trying to answer her. All his will power was directed to keeping the real significance of the yacht's disappearance from showing in his face. She had turned to him quite casual ly for an answer , but not getting it , remained looking intently into his eyes. "Mr. Cayley , " she asked pres ently , "were you telling me last night what you really thought was true , or were you just encouraging me I mean about those men who attacked the yacht ? Are you afraid , after all , that our people are not in possession of the Aurora , wherever she is ? " "I told you the truth last night. I can't imagine any possibility by which the men who came here on the Wal rus could get the Aurora away from your people , except by stealth. " "But if our people beat them off , why didn't they come ashore ? There aren't any of them around , are there ? " "Apparently not , " said Cayley. "They may have all been killed before they could get back to shore , or some of them may have been captured. No , I really don't think you need worry about them. " She drew a long deep breath , flung out her arms wide , and then stretched them skyward. "What a day it is. Was there ever such a day down there in that warm green world that people live in ? Oh , I don't wonder that you love it I wish I could fly as you do. But since I can't , for this one day you t Jsr . . . Tg ' Kg ? i'iJagaaaS ' f. / * / ! ! n \iy The Two Older Men Exchanged a Quick Glance. must stay down here upon the earth with me. " Her mention of his wings gave him his first faint perception of the line the struggle would take. His mind flashed for an instant into the posi tion which her own would take when she should know the truth. To her it it would not seem that they were castaways together. He was not ma rooned here on * .his shore. His ship was waiting to take him anywhere in the world. He was as free as the wind itself "I believe living in the sky is what makes you do that , " he heard her say "makes you drift off into trances that way , perfectly oblivious to the fact that people are asking you ques tions. " He met her smiling eyes , and a smile came , unbidden , into his own. "You've forgiven me already , I see , " he said. "What was the question about ? " "It was about breakfast. Have you anything to eat in that bundle of yours ? " He shook his head , and she drew down her lips in mock dismay. "Is there anything to eat anywhere ? " she questioned , sweeping her arm round in a half circle , landward. "Mustn't we go hunting for a walrus or a snark or something ? " Cayley had to turn away from her as she said that. The remorseless irony of the situation was getting be yond human endurance. The splendor of the day ; the girl's holiday humor ; her laughing declaration that she would not permit him to fly away ; this last gay jest out of the pages of "Alice in Wonderland" about hunting for a walrus. "God ! " he whispered as he turned away "My God ! " He had his revolver , and besides the six cartridges which the cylinder con tained , there were , perhaps , 30 in his belt. For how many days , or weeks , would they avail to keep off starva tion ? But his face was composed again when he turned back to her. "There are two things that come before break fast , " he said "fire and water. There is a line of driftwood down the beach to the westward , there at the foot of the talus. When we get a .fire go ing " he stopped himself short. "I was going to say that we could melt some ice for drinking water , but until we have some sort of cooking utensil to melt it in , it won't do much good. There must be something of the sort in the hut here. " She shook her head. "They're completely abandoned , " she told him. 'Our shore party searched them first of all , and afterward Uncle Jerry and I searched them through again. There is nothing there at all , but some heaps of rubbish. " "I think I'll take a look myself , " said he. "Rubbish is a relative term. What seemed no better than that yes terday afternoon while the yacht was n the harbor may take on a different meaning this morning. " He disappeared througn the door way , and two minutes later she saw him coming back with a big battered- looking biscuit tin. "Unless this leaks too fast , " he said , 'it will serve our purpose admirably. " He observed , without reflecting what the observation meant , that a bountiful supply of fuel was lying in great drifts along the lower slope of Lhe talus. Jeanne accompanied him upon his quest of it , and with small loss of time and no trouble at all they collected an armful. They laid their fire upon a great flat stone in front of the hut , for the outdoor day was too fine to abandon for the dark and damp in the Interior , and soon they had the fire blazing cheerfully. For a while they sat , side by side , \ upon his great sheepskin , warming their fingers and watching the drip of the melting ice in the biscuit tin. But presently Cayley got to his feet. "Breakfast ! " he said. "Is there to be anything besides a good big drink of water apiece ? I * there isn't , I'd rather not think about it until the yacht comes back. " "Unless I'm mistaken , there's an excellent breakfast waiting for us not far from where we got the fire-wood. * But I'll go and make sure before I raise your expectations any higher. " He walked away a half-dozen paces without waiting for any reply ; then , thinking suddenly of something else , he came swiftly back again. "Do you know anything about fire arms ? " he asked. "If you're accus tomed to shooting , I'll leave my re volver with you. No , " he went on , I answering the question which she had not spoken "no , I don't foresee any danger to you. It's just on general . principles. " " " "I'm a" pretty good shot. But if you're going on a hunting expedition for our breakfast and there isn't any foreseeable danger to me in being left alone , it seems reasonable that you should take the gun. " He took the revolver from his belt , however , and held it out to her. "Our breakfast doesn't have to be shot. And as a concession to my feelings no , it's nothing more than that I'd rather you took it. " She did as he asked without further demur , and he went away. When she was left alone , the girl added fresh sticks to the fire , and then , in default of any more active occupation , took up the red-bound book which lay be side her and began once more to pe ruse its pages. She had by no means exhausted them. In her reading of the night before , she had skipped the pages of scientific description for those parts of the journal which were most purely personal. Even now the whole pages of carefully tabulated data concerning the winds , currents , temperature , and magnetic variations got scant attention. In her present mood the homeliest little adventure , the idlest diversion of a winter's day meant more to her than all her fa ther's discoveries put together. When she saw Cayley coming back toward her across the ice , she put the book down half reluctantly. Evidently his quest for breakfast had ? \ot been in vain ; he had a big blacli and white bird in his liand. "Do you suppose it's fit to eat ? she called out to him. "How in the world did you manage to kill it without tse revolver ? " "Fit * o eat ! It's a duck. What's more. It's an eider , which means that her coat is worth saving. " "But how did you contrive to kill her ? " "I didn't She killed herself. She was flying too low last night , I sup pose going down the gale , and In the fog she went smack into the side of the cliff and broke her neck. That was a very destructive storm for the birds. There must be 50 of them , of one kind and another , lying dead there along the top of the talus , at the foot of tbft cliff. " ( TO BE CONTimiED. ) Prayer Unanswered. It had been raining all day and If * tte Mark , shut up In the hocure , wat anxious to get out and play. Hl mother , in another rooai , thought that she heard him talking , and pr * > ently Inquired to whom. "I was talking to God , mamma , " th child replied. "I asked Him to mak It stop raining so I could go outdoors. but I don't think He was very pliti about It. He never l t on * hat H heard mt a all ! "