STEK
H4SW.ROSSER
I91O &Y THE CENTURY CO
/IN copf BIGHT 1010 ey THE success co
15
SYNOPSIS.
' Philip Cayley. accused of a crime of
frhlch he is not guilty , resigns from the
irmy in disgrace and his affection for
ils friend. Lieut. Perry Hunter , turns to
latred. Cayley seeks solitude , where he
> erfects a flying machine. While soaring
> vor the Arctic regions , he picks up a
surlously shaped stick he had seen in the
issassin's hand. Mounting again , he dls-
iovers a yacht anchored In the bay. De-
icending near the steamer , he meets a
Irl on an Ice floe. He learns that the
Irlte name is Jeanne Fielding and that
he yacht has come north to seek sign's
if her father , Captain Fielding , an arctic
sxplorer. A party from the yacht is ma-
Jng ' search ashore. After Cayley departs
'eanne finds that he had dropped a cu-
lously-shaped stick. Captain Planck and
he surviving crew of his wrecked whaler
.re In hiding on the coast A giant ruf-
lan named Roscoe , had murdered Field
ng and his two companions , after the ex-
) lorer had revealed the location of an
mormous ledge of pure gold. Roscoe then
: ook command of the party. It develops
hat the ruffian had committed the mur-
ler witnessed by Cayley. Roscoe plans
o capture the acht and escape with a
> lg load of gold. Jeanne tells Fanshaw ,
) \vner of the yacht , about the visit of the
iky-man and shows him the stick left by
? ayley. Fanshaw declares that it Is an
Eskimo throwlng-stlck , used to shoot
arts. Tom Fanshaw returns from the
learchlng party with a sprained ankle.
* erry Hunter Is found murdered and
-ayley Is accused of the crime but Jeanne
> elleves him innocent. A relief party geese
o flnd the searchers. Tom professes his
eve for Jeanne. She rows ashore and
inters an abandoned hut , and there finds
ler father's diary , which discloses the e
) lorer's suspicion of Roscoe. The ruf-
an returns to the hut and sees Jeanne.
Te Is Intent on murder , when the sky-
nan ' swoops down and the ruffian flees ,
'eanne gives Cayley her father's diary
o read. The yacht disappears and Ros-
oe's plans to capture it are revealed ,
eanne's only hope Is in Cayley. The
icrlousness of their situation becomes ap-
> arent to Jeanne and the sky-man. Cay-
ey kills a polar bear. Next he finds a
: lue to the hiding place of the stores ,
loscoe is about to attack the girl when
ie Is sent fleeing in terror by the sight
pf the eky-man swooping down. Measures
re taken to fortify the hut. Cayley kills
a wounded polar bear and receives the
Irst intimation that Roscoe possesses
irearms. A fissure In the ice yields up
.Hunter's body and Roscoe , finding It , re-
! noves the dead man's rifle. He discovers
: hat Cayley Is a human being and not a
jplrlt. The ruffian Is baffled in his plan
* > murder Cayley when the latter and
[ eanne take refuge In the cave where a
rurlous storm keeps them Imprisoned.
iThey confess their love for each other ,
-avley , resolving to seek the ruffian and
111 him , finds Roscoe's cave.
CHAPTER XXI. Continued.
Probably no apparition of the mon-
Bter he expected to find there no
eight of him towering expectant
armed , anticipating all that Cayley
toped to do , and ready to frustrate it ,
jcould have been so terrifying to Philip
as the thing he actually saw , which
fcvas nothing. At least , so far as a
flrst glance into the cave would re
peal , his enemy was not there.
Cayley shuddered , not with fear ,
and yet with a sensation stronger
than disgust It was as if a leopard
had been standing over the deserted
Jlair of a hyena. A wild beast's lair
! t was and not a human habitation.
\ The floor was littered with feathers
and half-gnawed bones. The rocky
jwalls dripped with oil soot of his Horrible
rible cooking. The foul air of the
jplace was actually iridescent. But
jthe real horror of it lay in the fact
.that Roscoe was not there.
Cayley's reasoning faculties attack-
Jed that blind , irrational horror with
all their force. From the condition of
the fire it was evident that Roscoe
! had been gone several hours. It was
Almost certain that he would return
fioon. Cayley's arrival In his absence
really gave him an Immense advant
age. ' A man always comes unwarily
'into the place he calls home. If Roscoe -
coe came back now he would have no
chance at all against Cayley's quick
spring and the flash of the long knife-
iblade.
Certainly It was reasonable to expect -
pect that Roscoe would wait for an
other moonrlse before setting out on
any serious sort of expedition , and , If
that assumption were correct , he
might be returning to the cave at any
moment
He strode abruptly back to the cave-
mouth. As he did so , however , his
'eye ' alighted on something that made
him pause something so strangely
out of keeping with its surroundings
that "it caused him or he thought that
the reason a sense of recogni-
'tion , almost of familiarity.
The thing which so evidently did
not belong to Roscoe that It seemed
almost to belong to Philip himself ,
was a gold locket "It lay on a flat bit
of rock , which seemed to serve Ros
coe's purpose as a table. The objects
which surrounded it an irregular
piece of raw walrus hide , an over
turned bottle of whale oil. with a
smudgy wick in it a saljmafcer's
needle and some ravellngs of canvas ,
together with some scraps of food all
spoke so loud of Roscoe and made such
a contrast with this bit of jewelry that
.Cayley's . action In stooping to pick it
, up was automatic.
He held It In his hand a moment as
tit he did not know quite what to do
hvlth it , then put it In his pocket and
Vent out of the cave. Only during
, the moment when It had first caught
his eye had It really commanded his
'attention at all. By the time he got
outside of the cave he had forgotten
it
Two or three breaths of the clear
air outside of the cave were all he
.needed to revive him , physically. Butte
to his surprise they did not suffice to
rid him of the feeling which he re- '
'garded ' as superstitious , namely , the
Impulse to fly back to Jeanne as fast
as wing could carry him.
He had every reason to believe that
she was safe , he told himself. She
was armed with a heavy revolver , was
a good shot and had plenty of nerve.
She was in a place , the only avenue
of access to which would give her a
tremendous advantage over any in
vader. So that , even supposing the
worst supposing that Roscoe's ab
sence were taken to mean that he had
gone to make an attack on the pilot
house , there could hardly be a doubt
that Jeanne would kill him.
His reasoning was all based on the
assumption that the pilot house was
inaccessible to any wingless creature
except by way of the ice chimney.
Even now , when his fear for the girl
was amounting to a superstition of al
most irresistible intensity , it did not
occur to him to question that
He steadied himself as best he could
and crouched down in the shelter of
the big rock to await Rjiscoe's return.
He had hardly settled himself here
when he saw something that made
him shake his head impatiently , and
swear a little. It was the winking
glow of an aurora borealis , off to the
north.
Cayley gazed at the spectacle unwill
ingly , but still he gazed. And , some
how , though he fought the feeling des
perately , It began to assume a per *
sonal significance to him a signifi
cance of mockery. The whole sky was
quivering with vast , silent laughter.
Was it because he , with his fancied
cleverness and daring In finding Ros
coe's lair and waiting for his return to
it , was really doing precisely the thing
that Roscoe would have had him do ?
Were those sky-witches laughing over
what was happening up at the pilot
house while he sat here and waited ?
No intelligence , no sane power of
consecutive reasoning can resist this
sort of thing definitely , and at last
Cayley's power of resistance came to
an end.
He sprang to his feet , at , last , drip
ping with sweat , in spite of the cold ,
caught up his bundled wings , unfurled
them and took the air with a rush.
Once he had jerked himself aloft to a
height a little above the crest of the
cliff , it was hardly more than a mat
ter of seconds before he came oppo
site the dome-like mound of snow
which covered the pilot house.
There was no light shining out of
the tynnel entrance. But that was
as he had expected it to be. He made
It out easily enough ; and in another
moment had alighted there.
"Jeanne ! " he called.
It was not the exertion of flight , but
a sudden intolerable apprehension that
made him breathless. The word had
vhalted a little in his throat. Exact
ly as he uttered it he saw down the
tunnel , and in , the pilot house itself ,
a tiny spark of fire , and heard the
click of steel against flint.
What the spark illuminated were
the fingers of a gigantic , hairy hand.
Jeanne ! " he called again , and now
his voice came clear enough. "Wait a
minute and I'll make a light for you. "
CHAPTER XXII.
In the Pilot House.
Cayley had been right in assuming ,
as he did in his conversation with
Jeanne , upon the subject , that Roscoe
and the other people of the Walrus
had never noticed the ice chimney , nor
suspected the existence of the pilot
house upon the cliff-head. Also , he
had followed correctly the track of
Roscoe's mind in the deduction that
the two latest castaways upon this
land that is , Philip and Jeanne
must have perished In the great storm
which began on the night when he
fired the hut , and continued for so
many weeks that he , like them , lost
all trace"of reckoning.
During the storm he had lived in
the cave , much as Philip and Jeanne
had lived in the pilot house on the
cliff ; he had , that is to say , in some
purely automatic fashion , kept on ex
isting. The mere momentum of a ma
ture man's vitality makes it hard for
him to die. But when the storm
abated and milder weather came , he
bestirred himself , as Cayley did , and
set about digging a tunnel of his own
through the great drift which had
blocked the entrance to his cave.
The next time the moon came up ,
after he had completed the tunnel
from the cave , he set out down the
beach toward the ruins of the hut.
It was not mere curiosity which
attracted him , nor any lurking fear ,
but simply the hope of making some
salvage from the wreckage of the hut ,
or possibly , from the bodies of his two
victims , in case he was lucky enough
to flnd them. He had no doubt at all
that they were dead.
His pleasure over the quantity and
condition of the stores he found In
the Ice cave compensated for his
disappointment over not finding the
bodies of his two latest victims.
Evidently they had not even at
tempted to use such shelter as the ice
chamber afforded , for it showed no
mark of human habitation at aft. They
had probably wandered outside and
died in on of the near-by drifts. Per
haps he would find them some day.
For the present however , the stores
occupied his whole attention.
Very methodically he set to work ,
carrying them off to his own cave.
I
3,1S. . * ' * % ' l
Watched Cayley's Flight to His Land ing Place.
working without fatigue and without
intermission working so long as the
moonlight lasted.
He was just setting out with his last
load when , glancing skyward to see
how long the light would hold , he
caught a glimpse of Cayley on the
wing. The sight occasioned him no
return not even momentary of the
old terror. He cursed a little because
he had not his rifle with him ; the sky
man soaring slowly and not very high ,
presented a mark he could almost cer
tainly have hit.
It was surprising , of course , to see
him alive , but Roscoe , in his present
state , never thought of looking to su
pernatural means to account for the
fact. Indeed , he was hardly more than
a moment in approximating the true ex
planation. There might well be , he
supposed , up somewhere in the face
of the cliff a cave , or shelter , of which
he knew nothing , and easily acces
sible to anyone who happened to pos
sess a flying machine.
Skirting the cliff and keeping well
In its shadow , he made his way with
his last load , back to his cave. Here
he spent a few minutes cleaning his
rifle , making sure that the mechanism
of the breech was working perfectly ,
and filling its magazine full of car
tridges.
The moon was just setting , but the
, sky was still bright enough to give
him a good hope of making out Cay-
ley'-s winged figure against it.
Roscoe squatted down in the lee of
the great hummock of ice , surveyed
the heavens with keen , practised eyes ,
munching on a strip of dried walrus-
meat which he had brought with him
and waited very contentedly.
He had not long to wait. Long be
fore the moon twilight had gone out
of the sky he saw in it silhouetted
against it , the sight from which
he had once fled with such mad
terror the broad expanse of the sky
man's wings.
Instead of firing , he scrambled up to
the top of the nearest ice hummock
and from there watched Cayley'flight
to his landing place.
He laughed aloud when he saw that
It was not in the side of the cliff , as he
had feared , but quite at the crest of it
where it was as accessible to a man
who could climb a bit as to one with
wings.
He did not move from his attitude
of strained attention , on the summit
of a little ice hill , until he saw a faint
glow of golden light diffusing itself
from the mouth of the tunnel that led
to the pilot house. Then , with that
queer shuffling gait of his , which was
neither walk nor run , he began mak
ing his way Inshore , over the ice , to
ward the foot of the cliff.
Cayley's tunnel was not at right
angles to the crest , but bore off diag
onally westward. Roscoe had noted
this fact , and he figured It out from
the top of the promontory , which
formed tbe western boundary of their
strip of beach , he should be able to
command a view straight into the tun
nel. Also , there was at this point a
precipitous trail up the cliff. No one
but Roscoe would have called it a
trail , but that was the way it existed
in his mind.
His calculation of the angle of the
tunnel proved to be correct , for from
his newly-gained coign of vantage , he
could see straight into the pilot house
Went Down Together.
. * * ' * ' - " ' * *
1 ' * ' -
and make out clearly enough two fig
ures there.
Once more he was tempted to fire ,
and might have yielded to the temp
tation had not the light been put out
before he had fairly got his eyes ad
justed to the distance.
It is to be remembered , always , that
he knew nothing whatever of the ice
chimney , and suspected no connection
between the hut and the pilot house ,
except by the air. For anything he
knew to the contrary , Jeanne might
be able to fly , as well as Philip , or
he to carry her with him upon his
flights. Consequently , he did notsus
pect , when he saw Cayley take to
flight again , that this action had any
reference to himself ; nor that the
woman who was left alone would been
on her guard against him.
The moment he glimpsed the
shadow of Cayley's wings against the
stars he began making his way , cau
tiously , over the crusted snow , toward
the pilot house. The door was closed ,
but there was a light shining out
through a crack beneath it. It was a
glass door , but something had been
hung over the glass so that he could
not see into the interior.
Both Jeanne and Philip had made
the mistake of assuming that the only
way of access to the pilot house , ex
cept to Philip with his wings , was the
Ice chimney. It was a natural mis
take enough one that almost any but
a practised mountaineer would have
made.
Furthermore they had no reason
either of them for anticipating an at
tack upon the pilot house while Philip
was gone. They had been living here ,
now for weeks , in unbroken security.
So , though the girl obeyed Philip's in-
junctfon Jliterally jmd scrupulously ,
she did it without Ine' lTghtesT'sense
of personal danger , and indeed she
would hardly have had room for such
an emotion even if there had been a
much more reasonable ground for it.
She was sitting beside the oil stove ,
in one of the farther corners of the
room. The chimney hole was in the
corresponding corner. The revolver
lay on the table in the middle of the
room , a few paces behind her. The
pilot house door was directly in line
with it , and almost exactly behind her
back. The door was hinged to swing
inward.
When it burst open she attributed
the fact to no other agency than the
wind. She laid down the red-bound
book upon the bench beside her and
rose , rather deliberately , before she
turned round.
As she did so Roscoe sprang for
ward to the table and seized the re
volver. Her failure to turn imme
diately had given him the second he
needed to take in the strategic possi
bilities of the room.
His rifle was a clumsy weapon in
close quarters. So , as he sprang for
ward , he dropped it and made for the
revolver instead. It only needed a
glance at the girl to convince him
that she was unarmed. Quite deliber
ately he broke open the breech of the
revolver and satisfied himself that it
was loaded. Then he looked up again ,
blinking at the girl.
It was no wonder that Carlson and
Rose had mistaken her for the ghost
of the man their leader murdered. She
looked like her father as a woman
may resemble a man , and her white
ness , her fineness , her delicacy all in
creased rather than diminished the
credibility of the idea that she was in
fact his spirit.
The hand which held the revolver
dropped nervously at his side. He
swallowed hard , and wrung his cruel
lips with his other great hand. It was
then that the girl looked up into his
face. It was then she uttere'd her
first cry.
For she saw that he did not mean
to kill her.
Suddenly Jeanne's eyes detached
themselves from his face. A look of
sudden alarm came into them , and
she raised her hand to her throat , as
though she were choking. She was
looking past Roscoe , and straight
down the snow tunnel.
"Philip ! " she cried , "take care ; he's
here. "
The snow tunnel was empty , and
for aught she knew , her lover's body
might be lying mangled in the mon
ster's cave. She had thought of that ;
before she tried the trick. But , even if
that were so , that cry of hers- might
lead the monster to steal one uneasy
glance at the door behind him ; and
even that would give her time enough.
If he had not killed Philip , but sim
ply eluded him , he vrou-ld turn in
stantly.
That was what he did. He sprang
round with a suddenness which bespoke - *
spoke a perfectly genuine , commonsense -
sense alarm. And then he found himself - n
self in darkness. a
He understood at once that he had
been tricked. Without wasting the time
to turn back and look at Jeanne , he a
sprang toward the pilot house door.
He thought she meant to attempt to
rush by him , gain the snow-tunnel and
throw herself over the crest of the
cliff. He had not misread the sud
den loathing he had seen In her
when they met his face.
In the open doorway he wheeled
n
nh
got ahead of him that time. He laughed - _
ed aloud into the darkness , and then
spoke to her , with a vile , jocular fa
miliarity.
r
But he got no answer , in words or
a
otherwise. There was no outcry , no t
stifled sobbing. Nothing at all but
c
sigh and whine of the wind.
He moved forward , groping in the to
dark , but stopped when he felt the
pressure of the table across his thighs. a
He could do nothing without a light.
He would re-light the candle , first of
all , and then he would flnd her.
n
He took a bit of flint , a nail and a
a
rope of tow from his pocket He
struck a spark , but it failed to kindle
the tow.
It was at that Instant that Philip
alighted.
Philip sprang clear of his planesr
left them as they were there at the
tunnel mouth , and -walked steadily up
toward the pilot house door.
Roscoe , on hearing his voice the
first time- , had dropped the arti
cles which encymhered his hands and
groped on the table for the revolver.
Before he could put his hand on It
Cayley spoke the second time.
At that , wanting no weapon , confi
dent that he needed none , his great
arms aching for the feel of the sky
man's flesh beneath their grasp , he
moved a step nearer the door and
waited.
He saw Philip cross the hreshold.
unseeing suspecting , apparently.
nothing ; saw him , at last , within hand's
reach.
Just as he touched him he uttered
a sobbing oath , and his great hand fal
tered , for Philip's knife had struck
through , clean to the hilt , and just
below the heart.
The effect of the shock was only
momentary. With a yell of rage , he
sprang upon Cayley , crowded him
back against the wall , tore at him
blindly , Hike a wild beast , and finally
getting Philip's right fore-arm fairly
in the grip of both hands , he snapped
it like a pipestem.
In a moment Cayley got round be
hind him and with the crook of his
good arm round Roscoe's neck , he suc
ceeded In forcing him to release his
grip and in throwing him heavily.
As he lay , his body projected
through the doorway , out into the
tunnel. * rvt
Philip left him huddled there , and
went back to the table. He found
an < * steel beneath his
- - " " "
handhutt was""a"full minute before
he could summon his courage to strike
a light , for the inferences from Ros-
coo's presence here in the pilot house
began to crowd upon him nojv , grim
and horrible. But he struck a spark
at last , lighted a candle and looked
around.
The reaction of relief turned him ,
for a moment , giddy , as the glance
about the room convinced him that
what he feared worst had not happen
ed. But another thought occurred to
him , almost at once , when he saw
the cover had been removed from the \
top of the ice chimney.
In his mind , of course , that repre
sented the way Roscoe had come.
What , If Jeanne , unable for some rea
son to defend herself , had chosen , as
the lesser evil , to flng herself over the
cliff from the tunnel mouth ?
The moment he thought of that he
went out Into the tunnel , stepping over
Roscoe's body to do so. He went to
the edge and looked over , but it was
too dark to see. The light of the au
rora which still blazed in the sky , daz
zled his eyes , without lighting the
surface of the world below.
He must go down there , in order to
be sure. He had not stopped to furl
his planes when he alighted , and they
had wedged themselves sideways into
the tunnel , still extended and so ready
for flight in an emergency.
He righted them and slipped his
arms through the loops that awaited
them. He stood for a moment , test
ing the right wing tentatively. There
was a play about it that he did not un
derstand. So far as he could see noth
ing was broken. The fact that it was
his own arm did nqt occur to him.
He was just -turning to dive off the
cliff-head wh n , suddenly , he saw the
great form -of the man he had sup
posed to be dead , rise and rush upon
turn.
turn.Philip's
Philip's knife had , indeed , inflicted a
mortal wound , but a man of Roscoe's
physique lets go of life slowly. He
was bleeding to death , internally , but
the process was , probably , retarded by
his huddlqd position as he lay there
in the runner.
So be had lain still and awaited his
chance. Cayley was standing quite
at the edge of the cliff , and the man's
momentum carried him over. HIa
clutching hands grasped Cayley's
shoulders , and they went down to
gether. over 600 feet of empty space.
For Cayley the space was all too little.
As they went over he thought that he
and his gigantic enemy were going
down to death together. Instinctive
ly . , and much quicker than a man can
think , he swept his great-fantail for
ward and flung himself back in an at
tempt * to correct the balance destroyed
by the great weight that was clinging
to his shoulders.
They were , of course , bound to go
down. Neither his strength nor the
area of his planes was sufficient to
support . them both in the air. But in
the position into which he had flung
himself they would go down a little
more slowly. He would gain , perhaps ,
precious second more.
But he did not waste even an in
finitesimal moment in any struggle
against the force of gravity.
Twlc"e , with all his might , he sent
his left fist crashing against the face ,
the staring , horrible face , 'that con
fronted his own. But still that con
vulsive , dying grasp held fast
They were now more than a bare
200 feet above the ice. With a su
preme effort , an effort whose sudden
ness availed it better than its strength ,
he wrenched himself free and the
great weight dropped off. Another ef
fort , the instantaneous exertion of
every ounce of force he possessed , cor
rected ( the sudden change of balance
and prevented him from falling , like
the ] great , inert mass he had just
cast off.
Trembling , exhausted , he managed
blunder around In a half-circle.
slanted down inland and stumbled to
*
landing on the beach , not 50 yards
from the ice-clad ruins of the hut.
As he did so , the thought was in his
mind that during his struggle in tha
air with Roscoe. he had heard a cry ,
which neither he nor his antagonist
had uttered.
( TO BE CONTINUED. )
