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Show 5lTjieSky Man 5agaas iK.r liccn ablo to clear up (fc S's Identity, nor lfc-w of Caj'loy'B nppeai-JKte nppeai-JKte "The doubt and tho :Kh 1 I n worse than any iW"1! hivo done. When Sff 5omenn.es did. that ZVJ nrd UP hcro in th,! TK,. n cccs i to moro than JKhff the beach. ralBht be K, ' c3 human couple. Pimn and tho woman jHrihnt ha would go off B'nr reso, which left even JH& limp and exhausted. K?. situation, ho mleht jH$!n Siote ago and taken K'x hlsm3ii"'pIcIon from be-Br be-Br Sis the slBhl he saw. tho huso golden-winged s nmjcsllc guard. . in Kovcr that bit of beach fcffhThad about that wcro really an avenging iiuclnation of his own jc were not the only occurred to him. So. Eks. he lived in a sort K.ri iust and despair and K ltcpt hlrn sane was. In of nsanity the passion fhad led him to murder JKr fiver' dav ho tramped K'Uir gold ledgo and there, Htoted. he worked, cut-K. cut-K. ;7licial out of the rock, Kiabor beating it pure. K;s and months dragged Braricd routine moro than E. cniitmln and tho ter- iBlltlon thrust upon him. irostored him to his old fric brutal self. On the EidVthe discovery that tc the long scries of gold-Jcanno gold-Jcanno and Philip had j,o was. QKftln, the very rta: llio'c long years of iiwlcd crew and captain nd bent them to his will, inlrg from the ledge along 1. 11,0 Racier, when, on Uic day of this discovery, lie found that his accustomed path wis Interrupted by n new nssuro in tho Ice. It had occurrod Blncc he had come that way In tho morning, morn-ing, nnd was too broad to leap across. So he was forced to descend by the rougher and moro difficult track which lay along tho niornino. JEC eJiei had tsono thro Pces a'oni? trcl?lhis c,yo made out something, W-i?" 1,,s W.1 and n ,,UI below It which caused him at first to utter a snarl of a.iger, but led him the next moment mo-ment to glvo a wild blasphemous yell of in'.a Kl,fii!)sur6 ,wh,ch had opened lhJ?Q?cr ha(1 do"c- n an Instant, what the parly from tho Aurora had failed to do after hours of hard labor It had yie ded up the body of Perry Hunter! which during all these- months, it had kept Imprisoned. Tho sight of It wna no new thing to Roscoc. Ho had seen It a scoro of times, burled, deen clown In that eternal Ice. Hie .sight had cost him no oualm3. So ong as no ghosts camo back to haunt him, ho could suevc-y tho murdered body of ono of his victims with no moro emotion emo-tion than a polar bear would feci In similar circumstances. But that tho ice, which had apparently meant to keep It forever, should discharge It thus, gratuitously, gra-tuitously, into his very path, affronted him, seemed likrs a piece of insulting mockery on the part of tho envious dovll which ho worshipped for a god. But that feeling lasted only the period, of ono brief glance, and then changed to a saturnine Joy. For. strapped across the dead man's shoulders, fust where ho had carried it In life, was a rifle and round his middle a belt full of cartridges. cart-ridges. The next instant Rorcoe was bending over the body, Jerking savagelv at tho frozen buckles which resisted his Impatient Impa-tient fingers. But they would not be denied. If they were clumsy, tho hands weru strong. It was not five minutes later when Koscoe, rifle and ammunition belt in his hands, was hurrying on toward his cave once more. The body lay just whore his desecrating hands had loft it. The rifle was uninjured, that ho had seen at a glance, though, of course, all tho mechanism of its breech was frozen fast. But a half hour's hard work with cleaning rod and rags of what once had been a shirt, sufficed to put it Into commission com-mission again. Then, with. tho rifle over his shouldor. he swaggered out of tho cave. With his first glance abroad, he started. His devil was being kind to him today. Thoro could bo no doubt of that. Only, was he being too kind? Roscoo wondered a a little uneasily. Tor. shambling along the Ice. through tho thlckoulng twilight, not a hundred paces away, was a big bear. Roscoe was tired of walrus meat. Tho thought of a bear steak made his mouth water. Three years' disuse, however, had made his marksmanship uncertain'. Ho fired too soon, and though he did not miss, the only effect his shot hud was to make the bear turn about and go shambling down the glacier toward the beach, with ungainly haste. Roeuoc hurried after him and fired two moro shots. Whether they hit or not. lie- could not tell. Certainly Cer-tainly they did not serve to check the bear's flight. The next moment he had rounded the corner of the cliff and disappeared dis-appeared down the beach In tho direction direc-tion of Ihe hut. Roscoc hesitated, but only for a moment, mo-ment, then, with an oath, he set out in pursuit. It whs not so much the protection protec-tion which the rifle afforded him that was responsible for this new courage a3 it was that tho mere feel of it in his hands brought him back in touch once more with tho every-day matter of fact world, and made his visions and ghost3 seem a little unreal-It unreal-It was fully dark down here in the shadow of the cliff. The lumbering yellow yel-low shape of the bear was Indistinguishable Indistin-guishable against tho icy beach. That didn't matter, for he could follow along well enough by tho bloody tracks the wounded beast had left. The last of tho twilight was still in the skv, and half his glances were directed di-rected "thither, looking for something which he told himself could not pos-slblv pos-slblv exist, exccpL in Ills own fancy, yet fullj' expected to sec nevertheless, tho shadow of Caylcy's great wings. And at last he saw it impending in the lower air. liko a brooding spirit. Just abovo tho tiny square of light which marked the location of the hut. . Roscoc 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 tho ground, his face burled In his arms; nor did he turn and flee like one hagridden hag-ridden up the beach. Ho faltered, it Ih true, and his knees trembled beneath him. and vet. slowly and with many pauses he made his way forward. He was horribly afraid all the time, but curiosity was all the while overpowering overpow-ering fear. Ho was not more than two hundred yards away when Cayley alighted beside the girl. , , At what lie saw then. Roscoc dropped his rifle on tho beach, with a whispered oath, and rubbed his eyes. J he Usui which diffused itself from tho open window win-dow of tho hut was not much, but it was enough to reveal the fact that . th w great man-bird, this goldon-wlnged spii It which had kept him In tenor for - la ov.n sanitv all these months, was taking on his wings and was folding them up lo a bundle, in as matter-of-fact a a if he were furling an umbrella. He stood there now. Just an ordinary Mm an figure fig-ure of a man: the very man. in t.n.i, that he had pccii before and would have Sued long ago had It lfi!rJt& over-mastering terror of the thinD v,itn wings. , . n(i wasl,rca! range, "but Hoscoo" was too Uioroughly'astonilhed to seize the , oppor-tunitr oppor-tunitr and n a moment it v.as o no Sin The two figures shrank UOo the shadow of the hut. and the next mo ment the light disappeared. answered the shot explained the tlnn Roscoc jjquattcd down on i- beach "id set himself to tjjln'dng. In the light of what he had . ufci bcon tho emanation of the thing which had l nT,-Jroi and terrified him became al- So.wStapl. D,,r,"i,0o5feihe that had elapsed since any news of the .ViviMrod wor d had come to him. some-bidWd'Svenlod some-bidWd'Svenlod a flying inacWne. and coildCgo0po"sonslon of the aiml" ho might be able to use t lllr',-,c' might flc-r killing the man. and later the girl, bo able to terminate his exile to wait where he was ana kccp . disadvantages about this plan had ob truded themselves upon ' tonipera-Thc tonipera-Thc wind was rising 0V",0WanSv:erv ture falling steadily 'J hero wa .r1-indication .r1-indication that the first of thel. g " t"r storms was about to begin, and. cen cautiously approached the hut. , He was eo preoccupied 'i "t he for- fclally as he drew "MrerO'rU He r Jr oath or two. . -mino,! tho He picked himself up '"S" , crei-.t ungainly carcass. ljndU his hands, ho found thcJ'u"', jW.,. J).,,, hv two of Cnyley's thrc w eff 4ctl c one between the eyes and the ohm.. "'WlSwS good shooting. BMcr mark,-nianshlo mark,-nianshlo 1han he. Koscoe. was 'an'" of Clrarlv. t would not do to ibkl anv chances. When the dccisiv ?ti li. came Roscoc muat see to It that 0 advantages would bo on h!a aide. Wol,..that ought to be easy, nlnco tho man had a woman to protect as well as himself. n.;ai'In? tho. b0Rr he Peered stealthily f-round tho threo exposed sides of the 1 , .; N?. HJht w shining through its well-caulked crannies, and he heard no sounds, either. Once- or twico, from mero habit, he glanced up fearsomely at tho star light, and then sword at himself for having dono so, No terrifying apparition could appear up (hero now. For a moment, an accession of rago against the two who had bafTled him and enjoyed Immunity from him so lng. almost led him to attempt to break into the hut then and there, and aottlo matters; mat-ters; but hla saner common sense told him that tho settlement would almost inevitably be ngalnst hlra should he attempt at-tempt It. Ho was still entertaining this notion, however, when a luminous idea occurred to him. Around on tho far side or the hut, the west aide, which looked towards the headland, was a good-sbsod heap of fire-wood, which Philip had not been able to find room for insido the huL Roscoo hnd with him a flint and steel and a quantity of tow. Ho never traveled trav-eled without thorn. "With infinite precaution against nolso ho began laying a fire against the wlnd- i 1 ward wall of tho hut. Squatting, with his rlflo across his knees ready to uso In ease of an emergency, ho methodically methodi-cally whittled a quantity of dry splinters splint-ers off a few of the sticks, ignited them and carefully nursed the blar.e, until, under tho rising wind, it grow to the beginning- of a fair-sized conflagration. Then, catching up hl3 rifle, he slipped around the other side of tho hut. crouching crouch-ing down not moro than twenty paces away, and waller!. Already tho llro was burning finely and the silhouetted outline of the hut was plain against the glow of It. His plan was a good one. Tho pcoplo Inside the hut would have no choice and, probably, no thought, but of escape, whon they rushed out, as thoy almost certainly would, bewildered and confused, and plainly visible to him ngalnst tho glow of the flro behind them, it would bo easy, from the safo nheltcr of tho darkness, to shoot the man. Roscoe3 hands wero trembling a I i t tlo, but not with fear. Ho must not flro too soon. That was all. He must wait until tho man's body presented a clean mark against tlie bright Illumination of tho fire. It would ho too easy a shot to mlsa; and the woman would bo loft defenseless, without cvon tho Inadequate and temporary shelter of a roof and four walls. It was only, indeed, by tho morost hair's breadth that Roscoo's plan failed to worlc Tho Instlnot of escapo by tho nearest way from a burning building Is almost irresistible, and It led Philip and Jeanne to tho very edge of tho destruction, de-struction, which Roscoo had planned for them. Cayloy had his hand upon tho bolt of tho great door, whither he had sprung whon Jeanne's cry had awakened him. before tho" saving second thought stayed him nnd held him frozen where ho was. For perhaps five seconds ho stood thorc, while the memory of the unexplained bul- lot hole ho had found In tho body of the great boar, and the belated observation ob-servation that tho fire, which was destroying de-stroying tho hut, must have been started outside of It. articulated themselves Into a perfectly clear perception of Roscoe's plan. "Tho other way! Tho other way!" he cried, motioning Jeanne back through tho storeroom. "Into the cave. Ho Is waiting for ua outside. That's why ho fired the hut. Quick. Wo must save all wo can. And ao It happened that Roscoo waited in vain. Ho saw tho blaze ho had kindled kin-dled reach Its liery climax, and then ln tmlto of tho Icy galo which was fanning It. Ho down Into an angry, sullen, smouldering smould-ering glow. But no man appeared to furnish a mark for his waiting rlflo, and no woman was delivered defenseless, Khelterloss, Into his brutish hnnds. The failure of his plan brought back a moment or tweof the old superstitious horror, but his mind was braced ngalnst It now and did not readily give way. Somehow, the failure must be accountable) accounta-ble) humanly accountable. At last he solved thin mystery, too, partly solved it, at least, for ho remembered remem-bered the Ico cavo back of the hut. His first Impulse, when he thought of It. was to attack them thorc and now, to charge In over tho red hot coals of tho hut and settle matters onco and for all. lie was sane enough to seo that tho advantage would bo all against him. In closo quarters he could not do much with a rifle; and he remembered the deadly revolver shooting he had seen upon tho body of the bear. . Also, he would have to go into tho dark with tho firelight behind be-hind him. No. It wouldn't, do. Ho must wait. Well, ho could afford to wait much better than they could. Reluctantly ho rose, turned his broad back to the gale, and began making his laborious way hack to tho cave. It waa high time. III3 faco was frozen already. Tho Intonslty of the cold had already rendered his rlflo uscIcgs, for tho wholo mechanism of tho breech was frozen faat. 3113' stratagem had failed in Us ultimate Intention, for nature had laid her great Icy hand upon tho board and for tho present declared tho game a draw. (To bo continued.) |