cI'
I'
1
STCH
HASW.ROSSER
_ OPYRIGHT"'l9IO BY TMC CENTURY CO
COPYRIGHT 1910 BY THE. SUCCESS CO
SYNOPSIS.
Philip Cayley. accuaed of a crime of
Wfclch he la not eullty. resigns from the
army In disgrace and his affection lor
his friend. Lieut. Perry Hunter , turns to
hatred. Cayley seeks aolltude , where he
perfects a flying machine. While soaring
over the Arctic regions , ho picks up a
teurloualy shaped stick he had seen In the
' .assassin's hand. Mounting again , he ols-
Icovers a yacht anchored In the bay. I > e-
iBcendlng near the steamer , he meets a
Sflrl on an Ice floe. He learns that the
felrl's name Is Jeannp Fielding and that
Sbe yacht has come north to seek signs
lot her father , Captain Fielding , an arctic
texplorer. A party from the yacht Is ma
king search ashore. After Cayley departs
ueanne finds that he had dropped a cu-
Wously-shaped stick. Captain Planck and
Jthe surviving crew of his wrecked whaler
re In hiding on the coast A giant nir-
[ man nanicd Roscoe , had murdered Fielding
and his two companions , after the ex
plorer had revealed the location of an
enormous ledge of pure gold. Roscoe then
jtook command of the party. It develops
that the ruffian had committed the mur
der witnessed by Cayley. Pvoscoe plans
to capture the yacht and escape with a
big load of gold. Jeanne tells Fanshaw ,
owner of the yacht , about the visit of the
Bky-man and shows him the stick left by
Cayley. Fanshaw declares that It Is an
Eskimo throwing-stick , used to shoot
tflarts. Tom Fanshaw returns from the
' .searching party with a sprained ankle.
BPterry Hunter Is found murdered and
jCayley i * accused of the crime but Jeanne
llevos him innocent. A relief party g M
fled the searchers. Tom professes nia
for Jeanne. She rows ashore and
ters an Jb ndoned hut , and there finds
er father's diary , which discloses the ex-
lorer's suspicion of Roscoe. The ruf-
an returns to the hut and sees Jeanne.
JHo Is Intent oa murder , when the sky-
toan swoops down and the ruffian flees.
Weanne gives Cayley her father's diary
to read. The yacht disappears and Ros-
feoe's plans to capture it are revealed.
Jeanne's onrly nope Is In Cayley. The
fcerlousness oC. their situation becomes ap
parent to Jeanne and the sky-man. Cay-
I y kills a polar bear. Next he finds a
Jclue to the hiding place of the stores.
Koscoo is about to attack the girl when
3be Is sent fleeing In terror by the sight
tof the sky-man swooping down. Measures
are takea to fortify the hut.
CHAPTER XVIII. Continued.
"The sentence is that you shall be
frightened with a bear story. There's
a big one coming down the beach aft-
W you this very moment , and you're
to surrender the revolver to me and
atay under arrest in the hut until aft-
r I have killed"him. . "
She did not need to be told that he
jwas in earnest In spite of the smile
that went with his words. She turned
'about quickly and looked up the
beach , sighting along Cayley's arm as
'he pointed. Even in the deep twilight
ehe could already make out the shambling -
( bling figure that was coming along to-
Iward them on all fours.
"Why does he move In that queer
ort of way ? " she whispered.
They had shrunk back into the
hadow of the hut the girl actually
toside of the vestibule and Cayley on
.the door-step.
"He's been wounded. When I was
overhead I could make out the blood
tains on his side , and he was leaving
fe track on the ice.
"Wounded in a fight with another
fcear ? "
"No , that's not likely. "
She asked no further explanation ,
jbut slipped into the hut. The next
( moment she was back with the field-
glasses.
"While you're attending to the
( bear , " she said in a whisper , "I'll just
Ut ep watch up the beach for for any
one else. "
j - The past weeks had made one dif-
| fefence"ln her attitude toward Cayley
[ which she was now aware of , as she
contrasted her sensations on seeing
BPhilip step forward , out of the shelter
of the hut to confront the bear , with
] those she had experienced when he
{ had set out on a similar errand once
Before. She knew him now , and she
| fcad no fear for him. The feeling
that thrilled her now was nearer akin
% o pride than anything else.
I' Cayley fully justified her confidence.
The course the bear was taking would
jhave brought him within 20 yards of
! l ! jtheir door-step. When he first caught
Ight of Cayley he stopped , In two
itninds , apparently , whether to be
bunted or to do the hunting himself.
flThen , as Cayley advanced upon him
jrather slowly , he decided , hissed at
felm venomously and reared up.
He was already badly enough
Bounded to have taken all the fight
out of any other sort of animal , but
( half alive as he was , he cost Cayley
four cartridges. Three of those shots
.Cayley was reasonably sure must have
{ entered a vital spot. The first one
look the bear between the eyes as he
jwas rising. The second was fired into
this open mouth. The third was prob
ably deflected by the massive fore
jpaw which he was holding across his
% ody , in the attitude of a boxer. The
I'l [ fourth shot however , penetrated hi §
throat and probably smashed one of
jthe two first vertebrae , for it seemed
to bring the monster down all in a
teap , where he finally lay still. Cay-
jjtey could have reached him with his
loot
"Good shooting , " said the girl quiet
ly from the little vestibule.
He reloaded the revolver , letting
Ithe empty shells drop unheeded on
tthe ice at his feet He gave the weap-
jon back to the girl , and bent over the
feear.
"I'm less interested in what I did
| o him , " he said , "than in what he got
the enemy who first attacked
feta. "
j The light was almost gone , so that
I'j ' jRll he could see were two or three
j irregular dark stains upon the white
A -wound in the flank , which
*
wv
none of Cayley's shots could have ac
counted for , he explored with prac
tised hand.
Watching him as he did so , the
girl could fee that he had found some
thing unexpected , something which
surprised him greatly. And there
was more than surprise. There was
alarmed urgency in his voice when he
spoke to her. He offered no explana
tion. Merely told her to go into the
hut and make fast the solid wooden
shutters over the windows. He would
come in and would tell her what it
was all about. In a moment.
The girl had hardly finished the
task he had given her , when he came
in. In his blood-stained hand he was
holding out something for her inspec
tion.
tion.Conquartog a feeling of repugnance ,
she bent over the hand , cast one
glance at the thing it contained and
then started up and gazed , wide-eyed ,
into his face.
"A bullet ! " she said. "But but we
thought that Roscoe wasn't armed
not with fire arms , I mean. "
Cayley nodded. "But this seems to
be pretty good evidence that he is.
"Get up quickly ! * * she said when sha j
saw that he was awake. "Philip , the
hut's on fire ! "
CHAPTER XIX.
Roscoe.
Roscoe had never been able to clear
up his doubt as to Jeanne's identity ,
nor to solve the mystery of C&yley's
appearance in the air. Thb doubt
and the mystery tormented him worse
than any final conviction could have
done. When he thought , as he some
times did , that the cause of all his
terror , the thing which kept him
penned up here in the cave and de
nied him access to more than the fur
tive edges of the beach , might be just
a rather defenseless human couple , a
man and a woman , and the woman
beautiful , young , alluring when he
thought of all that he would go off
into transports of rage , which left
even his gigantic body limp and ex
hausted. If that were the situation ,
he might have killed the man weeks
ago and taken possession of the
woman.
The thing that kept him sane was ,
in itself , a species of insanity , the pas
sion for gold which had led him to
murder Captain Fielding. Every day
he tramped up the glacier to the gold
ledge and there , while the light lasted ,
he worked , cutting the precious metal
out of the rock , and with infinite labor
beating It pure.
As the weeks and months dragged
along , this unvaried routine more than
compensated for the solitude and the
terrors his superstition thrust upon
him , and gradually restored him to his
old normal , formidable , brutal self.
On the day when he made the discovery
that was to terminate the long series
of golden days which Jeanne and
He Fired Too Soon.
That's why I sent you into the hut.
It occurred to me that he might be
following the bear , and that the light
ed windows might give him a chance
for a shot at one of us. No matter
what superstitious fears he has , he
could hardly be too much afraid to fire
at us from a safe distance , if we hap
pened to offer a fair mark. "
"But we must have offered him that
a hundred times in the last weeks ,
that is , if his rifle had anything like
a modern range. "
"That bullet is certainly a modern
piece of ordnance , " said Cayley. "It's
soft-nosed and steel-jacketed. "
He laid it down on a shelf and went
into the storeroom to wash the stains
of the encounter from his hands.
"After all , " he said , "It's only one
more mystery , and I don't know that
one more can make any great differ
ence. Not in our way of life , cer
tainly. "
Both tried to stick to that view of
it and , for the present , to dismiss
conjecture upon the new topic from
their minds , but they did not succeed
very well. The idea that forced itself
upon them , in spite of their attempt to
discredit it , was that Roscoe's acqui
sition of a modern , long-range weapon
with ammunition to match did not
date back to the murder of Captain
Fielding , nor to the disappearance of
the Aurora , but that he had found the
weapon , by some strange chance , only
very recently , perhaps within a day
or two. It was a disquieting thought ,
at best.
It was time for Cayley to turn in
and for Jeanne to begin her evening
watch alone , but before that happened
they paid aa extra amount of atten
tion to the security of their doors and
windows.
It was a little before 11 o'clock
when Cayley came out of a deep sleep
to find her bending over him , shaking
him by the shoulder and cryine out i
i
his nama
Philip had been enjoying , , he was ,
again , the very mail who , during those
long years of exile , had dominated
crew and captain of the Walrus and
bent them to his will.
He was returning from the ledge
along th crown of the glacier , when ,
on the day of this discovery , he found
that his accustomed path was inter
rupted by a new fissure In the ice ; It
had occurred since he had come that
way in the morning , and was too
broad to leap across. So he was forced
to descend by the rougher and more
difficult track which lay along the
moraine.
Before he had gone three paces
along this track his eye made out
something , just off his patch and a lit
tle below it , which caused him at first
to utter , a snarl of anger , but led him
the next moment to give a wild blas
phemous yell of joy.
The great fissure which had opened
in the ice had done , in an instant ,
what the party from the Aurora had
failed to do after hours of hard labor
it had yielded up the body of Perry
Hunter , which , during all these
months , it had kept imprisoned.
Strapped across the dead man's
shoulders , just where he had carried
it in life , was a rifle and around his
middle a belt full of cartridges.
The next instant Roscoe was bend
ing over the body , jerking savagely
at the frozen buckles which resisted
his impatient fingers. But they were
not to be denied. If they were clum
sy , the hands were strong.
It was not five minutes later when
Roscoe , rifle and ammunition belt in
his hands , was hurrying On toward his
cave once more. The body lay just
where his desecrating hands had left
it.
The rifle was uninjured ; that he had
seen at a glance , though , of course ,
all the mechanism of its breech was
frozen fast. But a half hour's hard
work with cleaning rod and raes ol
what once had been a shirt , sufficed
to put it into commission again.
Then , with the rifle over his shoul
der , he swaggered out of the cave.
With his first glance abroad , he
started. His devil was being kind to
him today. There could be no doubt
of that. Only , was he being too kind ?
Roscoe wondered a little uneasily.
For , shambling along the Ice , through
the thickening twilight , not 100 paces
away , was a big bear. Roscoe was
tired of walrus meat. The thought of
a bear steak made his mouth water.
Three years' disuse , however , hadi
made his marksmanship somewhat
uncertain. He fired too soon , 'and
though he did not miss , the only ef
fect his shot had was to make the
bear turn about and go shambling
down the glacier toward the beach ,
with ungainly haste. Roscoe hurried
after him , and fired two more shots.
Whether they hit or not , he could not
tell. Certainly they did not serve to
' The next moment
check the bear's flight.
ment he had rounded the corner of
the cliff and disappeared down the
beach in the direction of the hut.
Roscoe hesitated , but only for a
moment ; then , with an oath , he set
out in pursuit. It was not so much
the protection which the rifle afforded
him that was responsible for this new
courage as it was that the mere feel
of it In his hands brought him back
in touch once more with the every
day matter of fact world , and made
his visions and ghosts seem a little
unreal.
It was fully dark down here in the
shadow of the cliff. The lumbering yel
low shape of the bear was indistin
guishable against the icy beach. That
didn't matter , for he could follow
along well enough by the bloody
tracks the wounded beast had left.
The last of the twilight was still in
the sky , and half his glances were
Directed thither , looking /or some
thing which he Fold" himself could not
possibly exist , except' in his own
fancy , yet fully expected to see never
theless , the shadow of Cayley's great
wings. And at last he saw it im
pending in the lower air , like a brood
ing spirit , just above the tiny square
of light which marked the location of
the hut.
Roscoe abandoned his pursuit of the
bear ; all thought of it , in fact , was
gone from his mind ; but he did not ,
as on a former occasion , drop down
prone upon the ground , his face buried
in his arms ; nor did he turn and flee
like one hag-ridden up the beach. He
"This Air Will Bring You Back to Life. "
faltered , it is true , and his knees
trembled beneath him , and yet , slow
ly and with many pauses he made his
way forward.
He was horribly afraid all the time ,
but curiosity was all the while over
powering fear. He was not more than
200 yards away when Cayley alighted
beside the girl.
At what he saw then , Roscoe
dropped his rifle on the beach , with-
whispered oath , and rubbed his eyes.
The light which diffused itself from
the open window of the hut was not
much , but it was enough to reveal the
fact that this great man-bird , this
golden-winged spirit which had kept
him in terror for his own sanity all
these months , was taking off his wings
and folding them .up Into a bundle , in
as matter-of-fact a way as if he were
furling an umbrella. He stood there
now , just an ordinary human figure
of a man ; the very man , in fact , that
he had seen before and would have
killed long ago had it not been for his
over-mastering terror of the thing
with wings.
He presented a fair mark now , and
was in easy range , but Roscoe was too
thoroughly astonished to seize the op
portunity , and in a moment it was
gone again. The two figures shrank
into the shadow of the hut , and the
aext moment the light disappeared.
For a moment , an accession of
rage against the two who had baffled
him and enjoyed immunity from him
so long , almost led him to attempt to
break into the hut then and there , and
settle matters ; but his saner common
sense told him that the settlement
would almost inevitably be against
him should he attempt it.
He was still entertaining this no
tion , however , when a luminous idea
occurred to him. Around on the far
side of the hut , the west side , which
looked toward the headlands , was a
good-sized heap of fire-wood , which
Philip , had not been able to find
room for inside the hut Roscoe had
with him a flint and steel and a
quantity of tow. He never traveled
without them.
With infinite precaution against
noise he began laying a fire against
the windward wall of the hut. Squat
ting , with his rifle across his knees
ready to use in case of an emergency ,
he methodically whittled a quantity of
dry splinters off a few of the sticks ,
ignited them and carefully nursed the
blaze , until , under the rising wind , it
grew to the beginning of a fair-sized
conflagration. Then , catching up his
rifle , he slipped around the other side
of the hut , crouching down not more
than 20 paces away , and waited.
Already the fire was burning finely
and the silhouetted outline of the hut
was plain against the glow of it.
His plan was a good one. The people
ple inside the hut would have no
choice and , probably , no thought , but
of escape. When they rushed out , as
they almost certainly would , bewild
ered and confused , and plainly visible
to him against the glow of the fire be
hind them , it would be easy , from the
safe shelter of the darkness , to shoot
the man.
It was only , indeed , by the merest
hair's breadth that Roscoe's plain
failed to work. The instinct of es
cape by the nearest way from a burn
ing building is almost irresistible , and
it led Philip and Jeanne to the very
edge of the destruction , which Roscoe
had planned for them.
Cayley had his hand upon the bolt
of the great door , whither he had
' had awakened
sprung when Jeanne's cry
ened him , before the saving second
thought stayed him and held him
frozen where he was. For perhaps
five seconds he stood there , while the
memory of the unexplained bullet hole
he had found in the body of the great
bear , and the belated observation that
the fire , which was destroying the hut ,
must have been started outside of it ,
articulated themselves into a perfect
ly clear perception of Roscoe's plan.
"The other way. The other way ! "
he cried , motioning Jeanne back
through the storeroom. "Into the
cave. He is waiting for us outside.
That's why he fired the hut Quick.
We must save all we can. "
And so It happened that Roscoe
waited in vain. He saw the blaze he
had kindled reach its fiery climax ,
and then in spite of the icy gale which
was fanning it , die down into an
angry , sullen , smouldering glow. But
no man appeared to furnish a mark
for his waiting rifle , and no woman
was delivered defenseless , shelterless ,
into his brutish hands.
The failure of his plan brought
back a moment or two of the old sup
erstitious horror , but his mind was
braced against it now and did not
readily give way. Somehow , the fail
ure must be accountable humanly ac
countable.
At last he solved this mystery , too ,
partly solved it , at least , for he re
membered the ice cave back of the
hut His first impulse , when he
thought of it , was to attack them
there and now , to charge in over the
red hot coals of the hut and settle
matters once and for all.
He was sane enough to see that the
advantage would be all against him.
In close quarters he could not do
much -with a rifle ; and he remembf ! *
revolver shooting he
ed the deadly
had seen upon the body of the bear.
Also , he would have to go Into th
dark , with the firelight behind hi -
No. It wouldn't do. He must wait
Well , he could afford to wait much
better than they could.
Reluctantly he rose , turned his
broad back to the gale , and began ma
king his laborious way back to the
cave.
It was high time. His face was
frozen already. The intensity of the
already rendered his rlflo
coM had . $
useless , for the whole mechanism of
His stratagem
the breech was frozen fast
agem had failed In its ultimate Inten
tion , for nature had laid her great icy
hand upon the board and for the pres.
ent declared the game a draw.
CHAPTER XX.
A Moonlit Day.
The midday moon had changed the
somber purple of the snow to silver.
The snow lay everywhere , save upon
the vertical face of the cliff itself , an
unrent , immaculate mantle over all
this arctic world. The valley , the
hills , the beach and the frozen sea
all lay at peace beneath it , as if asleep
or dead.
To Cayley , where he lay , suspended
in midsky , the moonlight gleaming
upon the sensitive fabric of his
planes , as it gleams upon the faint
ripples on a mill pond In the dead of
some June night to Cayley this white ,
sleeping , frozen world looked very .
far away. He was a-wing for the
first time since that eternity ago when
he had descended upon the beach be
side Jeanne to warn her of the approach
preach of the bear.
How long ago that was , by the
measure of hours and days and weeks ,
he did not know. He had no data for
an estimate that would be better than
a guess. He remembered how des
perately they had worked that night ,
saving what they could from the burn
ing hut and carrying It back into the
cave ! remembered with what labor he
and Jeanne had climbed the ice chim
ney to the only shelter that now re
mained to them , the little pilot house
observatory upon the cliff-head ; re
membered the unremitting labor of
uncounted hours while they adjusted
their way of life to the conditions im
posed by the calamitous loss of the \
hut.
hut.But after that there were lapses of
time which memory did not cover.
During that time he knew the ut
most fury of the arctic winter had
been raging over them , without cessa
tion. They had been sheltered from
it down in the heart of the great drift
of snow which the storm had heaped
about them. But , even in this security
the shock of those successive parox
ysms of nature's titanic rage reached
down and benumbed them , body and
soul.
soul.But at last the rage of the storia
bad spent itself and had become still.
The bitterness of the cold relaxed and
became milder. Cayley had felt the
blood stirring in his veins again , the
power of consecutive thought and the
ambition to live , coming once more
into his possession. He had gone to
work , feebly and drowsily at first , but
with constantly increasing energy and
strength , at the task of opening up.
once more , the tunnel through the
drift which the great storm had
choked.
When he had broken through the
outer crust of the drift , and the white
radiance of the midday moon shone
into the black tunnel where he had
been working , he stood for a moment
drawing deep breaths and gazing over
the scene which lay beneath his eyes.
S2 hastened back into the little pilot
house. , "TSSjS
Jeanne was dozing upon a heap of
bear-skins. He roused her with some
difficulty ; really waking up had been
a hard matter lately , almost as bard
as really getting off to sleep. She
was stifl drowsy when he led her
3long thfe1 funnel to the cliff-head.
Breathe leep " he told her. "We
were half poisoned la there. This air
will bring you backSfo life Pgain , it
" " = iOi
and the moonlight.
He had been supporting' her with
his arm about Iisr waist , but 5now , aa
she held herself a little stralghtihf j nd
he could feel h&r lungs expanding
with" the pure air she breathed , he
withdreV the arm and let her stand
alone. Even" the white moonlight re
vealed the colcr chat was corning
back into her cheeks.
For a v/hiio she did not speak at
all ; then , as if replying to a com
ment of his , she naid :
"Yes. it's beautiful. . . . But ,
Philip , it's dead. Dead. "
"Not this air that has ozone spar
kling all through it It Is alive enough
to make your blood dance. It's doing
that now. "
He tried to porsuarts her to take z
little exreclse along ibe length of the
tunnel , but she demurred to tbt In
stead , she asked bin ; to bring .out
some bear-skins and let her 5k tbcr
at the cliff-head locking out
'And , " she supplemented , "if yen
want to know what I should lite moot
of all , it would be to bare you bring
your wings so that I can e 9 you fly
ing again , and a fi ld-gJjwa that I c&a
watch you through. "
He felt some hesrcailcn. partly out
of a fear of her cad portly
from a doabt concerning b u own
strength ; but uaithsr of these reasons
was one he eare < ! to arow. So ho un
furled the bundle * that had lain dis
used so long , sprcul astl tightened
and tested it. and at ! uetwith a nod
of farewell to the girl. Aired off the
cliff-head.
Any doubt he raay liavo had con
cerning his strength iiapp9are < l at
once. The mere touch of those great
wings of his seemed to bring It all
back , ncd boj > * and Joy a d ccudd nc
along with It
< TO 312 CONTINUED. ) . \
