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Show long dead. Mm Bb, was allvt; warm. He now to make out the bt--r throat, the retreat-ln- g and returning color which bathed cheek. Ilia tmhe Lk.. S J'8" "a fBn of nr bre't br,ttlh,'' laW the throw, ingstkk upon the Ice. drew nerve, and muscle, taut for hi. rush. Then, Just then, he .aw the thing iliat made Jeanne close her eyes, the hushing sword cut of that great gold-- e wing, as the thing It bore turned upon the other. Itoscoe dropped down, as If be bad been blasted by the Bight of a sword-carchangel, in the shelter of W no ittjr ,herei prone rock, bis head In bis anus. He didgng not rouse himself, did not succeed In forcing hla treacherous nerves and muscles to obey his will until It was quite dark. Then, without a glance behind him. he arose and began scrambling madly up tho broken face of the talus, and. reaching tho top of It, went on and scaled tho cliff itself, it was a feat which even he could hardly have accomplished except under the extremity of terror. For only so long as waa necessary to regain hi breath, be lay panting Upon the Cliff head. In the dark rush. as if lng along the precipitous trail be followed had been a thoroughfare, he retraced his way down tne landward side of the mountain and across the vullov. ll aA not pause until he found himself safo in the cave again hesldu the glacier. " . oft ""ousn "r curve of d SYNOP8I8. JSydr Uul- that accused of a crime of V nut ullty. SITfrtend. ,IL l t!iiyl'-- y - tlx from affection P" ki solltuit", ',,lnl"r turn wh;re niaehliia. While allying Arrtlo reslona. he fr h soaring SC.r up a In the li en had slick H,U" shup-h. eKaln, dl. hand. uimy t Mounting anchored In the bay. lie a niecU near the lie harna that the 5h o an lee I rl's name I Juanne Fielding and that fh vat'ht hM rotne north to seek nluna an ar.-ttIrfVr fathor. Captain .lulorer. A party from the yaeht la nm. ehore. After Cayley diparts kin a Jraiine tln.la that he lind druMl stick. Captain t'lnnck andr whali-Ida wracked (ha surviving crew of A Riant ruf. ere in hiding on the coast.murdt-reit. flan nnnwd Itoaeoe. had In and liia two companions, after th had revealed the lucutlnn of an tnornioiii ledae of pure old. ll.mcoe then took command of the party. It develops the mur-Athat the ruftlan had committal itnacoe plan witnessed by Cnyli-y- . with a and tn capture the yacht tells KitnMiaw, tic load of gold. Jeanne vlalt of the the yacht, about theatii-oner of and left by ahowa him the KanaliHW Cnyli-ythat It la an used to ahiMit Eklmo throwlnsr-atlcdarta. Tout Kanahaw returna from the a with searehln party apralnd ankle. Kerry Hunter la found murdered and crime but Jeanne of la the aeruaed Cavley A relief party cw-believes hlin InntM cnC , Tom professes hi to And the searchi-relove fur Jeanne. She rowa aalmre and enters an abandoned hut, and there find me ex. her father a diary, wiiii-- aim-iosThe ruf niorer'a sUMDlclon of Koai-oe- . to the hut and awe Jeanne. fan returna on murder, wnen the , He la Inti-n- t swoops down and the ruffian gives Cayley her father's diary to Tlie yacni aiaappeurs aim Uim roe's plans to rapture It are revealed Jeanne's only hope la In Cayley. The seriousness of thi-l- r situation heroines ap. t Lay r-n- killstoajeanno ami tneNext he flnda i polar clue to the hiding; place of the atom. A cellar in the hut haa a chimney-lik- e hole leading up tiirmiKii tne ice to an observatory where Captain Fielding had bidden supplies. pus ya-h- H. Kli-ldl- Kit-I- rr ea-ap- n dm-lure- . k, a e sky-ma- say-ma- n. bc-a- CHAPTER XVI Continued. bout, and Jeanne, It was no base less terror, no product of the twilight and the (act that you were far from home. Them waa something there, slipping along from the shelter of one boulder to that of another. I found the tracks In the snow. They weren't more than ten paces away from you when I came down out of the sky." "Was It the bearr she asked. "That was what you thought It might have been, at the time." Dut he could see in her eyes that this was not the an swer she expected. if ? lr"uaded i, that time by night during the storm had been notn-Inbut a hallucination. None tho less he knew that it would be easier lo walk pant that empty hut In full bread th,s trl, k5r- - I,,lfi,y. "!" tain of dawn. "e carried out thl, ,,un onre, to the point, that Is, of going up the glacier to the cave, building a firo thr and satlHfylng his sharp hunger with an enormous meal. Hut he had not slept at all the nlKht before, and now the warmth and the satisfaction of his appetite made hln nerveless hand releuso the bone he was gnaw-lnand caused blm to roll over e the fire and to fall asleep. He slept deeply for a number of hours. Then, arming himself with a throwing-Btlcand a number of darts, he stepped outsldo the cave. Intent upon bis expedition to the other side of the peninsula where there was a possibility of finding the yarht. Tho cave was situated some little distance up the glacier, and the shortest, though by far the more dlf. ficult way of reaching his destination lay, not along the beach but up through the Interior valley and across the precipitous coast range of bills. It was not the natural way to go, but the fact that It was actually shorter gave him a sort of excuse for avoiding another visit, Just now. to the scene of his discomfiture of the night before. He swore at himself, not so much for taking this course as for the reasons which his common sense alleged against him. His present route took him close to the gold ledge, and the sight of the inexhaustible, precious, tisVIess metal that remained here brought upon him for the first time, in full force, a sense of his loss, a sense of what that luckless trip ashore from the Aurora In search of that rosewood box bad k cost blm. At an Increased pace he descended from the glacier, crossed the valley and scaled the landward side of one of the mountains of the coast range, to a notch where be could command a view of the sea to the westward. He saw there what in the bottom of bis mind, he had all along been sure he would see nothing but another He shook his bead; that told her barren, bleak horizon. At that for a while, his fortitude enough. broke down, and he raved and wept As Roscoe fled along the beach on and cursed like one demented. But at the night Cayley descended upon him last spent, sobered, conscious once through the fog, there was no doubt more of a sharp hunger, he climbed a In his mind that be baa seen the ghost little farther up the mountain to a of the man be had murdered and ledge, where, as bis minute knowledge the shadow of a black avenging spirit of the country led him to expect he found a number of loons sitting. He hovering over bis bead. When he found that his boat bad killed one of these birds with a dart gone adrift and that bis only means and then, like the brute he was, ate it of getting back to the Aurora had raw and warm. By that time It was late in the art gone with It he dropped down upon uu ernoon. uravaao, comoinea beach, crawled up Into the lee of a suc great rock and bad spent the night more real belief than Be had yet that effect to the In ceeded retaining, there, his mind completely torpid with all his terror of the night before had rear. When the numbness of this terror resulted from nothing more serious to Passed away, as gradually it did, he than a nightmare, led him to decide Dent all this thoughts upon the Aurora go home by way of the beach, rather and upon the possibility, not quite in- than along the difficult interior trau conceivable, that his crew bad suc ud which he had come. cliff-heato The descent from the ceeded in overpowering her people and were now In possession of the the beach was nothing to a man of his yacht He tried to persuade himself Inhuman strength and activity, though that this waa ao and that with the an ordinary skilled mountaineer might before attempting it. coming of the dawn they would send have hesitated of the wsy Nevertheless, a boat ashore for him. luck he Of the strange figure he had seen down he nearly fell but for a he caught for have fallen, wnnid there In the hut, so like and yet so of a quarter terribly unlike the victim of his mur glimpse of a lonely figure, derous lust four years ago of that a mile away, perhaps, Beaten upon in Tiand, and of the more terrible apparition be ledge, bending forward, chin and bad seen coming down out of the sky, tn an attitude which recalled, he man the of that echoed, he thought, or tried to think nothing horribly at all. it was only a nightmare, only long ago had murdered. When he had steadied himself a lit a delusion, natural enough when one tie, he made his way cautiously down considered all the circumstances. to the level of the beach. His emotions apthe When the fog" lifted with about equally between proach of dawn, he discovered what were divided the anger existing ne and anger, fear become not Philip and Jeanne did fear. the of aware of until Beveral hours later, that with Infinite caution he approached the Aurora had drifted out to sea in horithat lonely, unsuspecting figure, slipthe gale. The clean line of the of one rock to zon was broken by nothing but the ping from the shelter nearer. one a little of that was Ice. There Plunging masses of the Three times his left hand drew baeK Just one chance, be tbougtit, thai she throwing-sticK- . oaianceu auu the at near might still be comparatively would Bend its that line a aimed along hand. Southward and eastward the as swiftly and as surehorizon was unbroken, but the Jutting thin Ivory dart throat as the ono beautiful that to west ly mass of the promontory to, the transfixed Perry and found cut oft his view In that direction. It that had times his mus three and Hunter's: had which was possible that the gale for the effort themselves braced destroyed the floe that formed the cles each time, with a But to it propel the pack harbor, had also broken up be lowered the Ice at the other side of the peninsula, breathless oath, with the back of and aealn. wnnnon the Bide from which Cayley, on the the sweat from band wiped unhis hairy ing, had first approached this forehead. known land. The yacht might be his The act had none of the quality or there, riding safely in practically open mercy in it; It was simply the result water. he of a logical dilemma. If the thing he nest snow He got up from the were a ghost, the had made for himself In the lee of the saw before blm he had already man of the stiffenhis flexed gbosi rock, and cautiously his dart would do no harm. If ed muscles, with the idea of setting ir it were wuat. u ut at once down the beach and it were not a ghost;more like as he drew and more looked around the headland to learn whether woman-- he breathing a living, this last hope of his was groundless. nearer, them with and wrung his lips licked no hope Really, ja his heart, he had he did a woman, were It hand--lf at all, but that fact made It easy to his o cou.u ne to kill her. Postpone for a little longer the putting not want would he sure, be onlv nM of thl. delusion of a hope ne haa to and make one rush the test of reality, drop his weapon In those great helpless hold her The excuse he made to himself was, and that he waa ravenously hungry, and bands of his. that And with every Ave paces that his most sensible course would be them, between distance the 'o go up the glacier to the cava and lessened him. No, 'ook himself a breakfast before he did that certainty grew upon of a man immaterial spirit no was she tthlna: else. d two-third- s well-wor- CHAPTER XVII. A State of Siege. Cayley's discovery of the track, furnished the last element of the drama which was to play Itself out that winter upon this stage which had been so strangely set for It. It was Just three days since, flying slowly north ward before a mild southerly breeze, the Ice pack below blm, be caught his first glimpse of- - the unknown ' land where Captain Fielding had met hi. tragic fate so many years before. Three days sinco he had witnessed, from aloft, the murder of a man he might have saved, the man to whom, had he saved him, be might have turned for exoneration from a stain upon bis name which was now Ineradicable. Three days ago be had thought bis world was empty, swept clean of human concern and human affection. Three days ago he had not known that Jeanne Fielding existed. As for the Identity of the monster who had left the proof of his existence In those tracks which Philip bad discovered In the snow, they of course had no certain knowledge; nevertheless, tbey entertained but little doubt that he was Roscoe himself. The footprints were Immense, Cayley said, and their distance apart bespoke the stride of a giant It it were Roscoe who had been crouching there behind the bou)W, then it seemed to them unlikely that he was here alone; unlikely that he t had not two or three of his crew with him. That idea, when it first occurred to them, brought little added terror with it The person of the monstrous murderous ruffian, who was the chief, dwarfed his subordinates to pygmies. Tet when they came to think over the situation, reasonably, this uncertainty as to the number of their enemy proved a vital element in It. It put an unequivocal veto upon Cayley's first plan, which was to start out at once and take the aggressive against their enemy, before he Bhould have time to move against them. This bit of beach where the hut stood was practically fortified. The cliff behind it was absolutely sheer, and was capped with deep, perpetual snow. Half a mile to the westward was the promontory, and about half a mile up the beach from the hut to the eastward, the glacier projected its Ice masses In a long floe out to seaward. This glacier provided the only practicable means of entrance to the Interior valley and the ledge where the gold was. Py means of a large scale map, ley pointed out to Jeanne thl. Cay- advan-tag- of their position. "So long a. thl. bit of beach." be said, "we cant be rushed nor surprised. No oue can attack u. without either coming down the glacier at one end, or around the promontory at the other. From either direction they've got to approach without cover. Of course If there are a lot f them, we sna'n't have any chance. But It may be there", only one, and It", likely that there are not more than three." "But at night." said the girl night thereH bo nothing to prevent their coming as close as they please. They may lie out there, not a. dozen yards away." "They're not doing much If they are. We're securely barracaded here, and they can't attempt to break In with-ou- t ;;lving us fulr warning. Unless there are too many of them we should beat them at that game. No; the time to look out for them Is when we're outside the hut out on the beach doing the things we'll have to do bringing In firewood, looking for more gnme, and so on." "Shall we have to do that? Can't we just stay In here, safe?" "The daylight will answer that quos-tio- n for me," he said. "We must make the most of. It A month from now there'll be but little. We musn't mnko prisoners of ourselves until the winter does It for us. There Is ono thing, though," he added thoughtfully after a little silence, "one thing that I must do at once, and that I. to destroy these sheds where they kept their stores. They would furnish a cover as good a cover as any enemy could ask for. They hinder our view up the beach." "How long do you suppose It will last?" she asked, In a voice that shook a little. "How long can It last? How long can we live like that, even supposing that our watch Is effective and that they aren't able to surprise us?" She clasped ber bands, with a shudder, and gripped them between ber knees. "Oh, If it would only happen soon," she went on, "whatever It Is!" "What 1 don't understand," said Cayley, "Is why they haven't attacked us already. Why have they waited until we are fortified and secure? Why didn't tbey attack us yesterday morning when they would have found 4 us helpless?" "Surely," said Jeanne, "he couldn't have hoped for a better opportunity to attack me than be bad when I was alone there in the twilight before you came flying down out of the sky; and you said be was quite near. Why do you suppose he didn't? Why do you suppose he waited?" "And even after I came down," said Cayley, "I was helpless for a minute while I was getting clear of my planes. Yes, that was bis chance, and yet be waited. After we had gone, he ap parently Bcaled the cliff, for his tracks led right up to It. .and then disappeared. It', not quite bo precipitously steep there as It 1. here, but I would hc.ylly have dreamed that a buman being could climb It" "He', afraid," said Jeanne after a little thoughtful silence, "simply afraid. But if he', the man we think he is. It wouldn't be a human fear. It must be superstitious in some way. It wouldn't be wonderful If he felt that, after the two glimpses be had of you. I remember bow I felt at first when you alighted on the floe beside me. He', seen you twice, remember.. The first time at night In the fog; the second time In broad day, with the sun on your wings. ; No, It Isn't strange If he thinks of you, not as a man at all, but as a sort of terrible angel keeping guard over me. When I go very long without seeing you, or when I Bee you In flight, I get to think ing of you In that way myself." "If that's the way he thinks of me,' said Cayley, "well try not to disabuse him. A belief like that Is an item on our Bide of the ledger, certainly. And we haven't any such balance In our favor that we can afford to throw an advantage away, even a small one." Really the balance of advantage be- we stick to "at , mur-dere- "He's Afraid." Said Jeanne, After a Llttl. Thoughtful Silence. them and their enemy wa. eveu. Tbey had the hut, the enemy the store. They had Captain Fielding'. Journal, their enemy the experience and practical knowledge of the country. They were two, with but a tingle weapon between them. Their enemy, for aught they knew, might be one or a half a dozen; and bow armed, they did not know. Fortunately, no prophetic vision enabled them to anticipate, on that first evening, the length or time that that precarious life and death balance would maintain Itself. Tbey had agreed, Philip and Jeanno, that the only thing to do was to wait aud to maintain an unwinking vigilance. But both 'of them thought of tho duration of this wait lu term of hours, or, at most, days. Had they foreseen that It would stretch Itself out Into weeks and months, they might well have despaired. There were two things that k. them from succumbing to despair. The first was that tbey never really permitted themselves to hope, to Indulge In any thoughts of a summer's day when their horizon should bo rut by the spar, nml funnels of a ship bringing relief. They were simply going to live one day at a time. For every day that they could simtch out of the hand of death, they would give thanks. It was the only attitude possible for people in their condition. 'And the thing that helped them to maintain It waa the abundance of necessary routine occupation. They divided their day Into watches. Cayley slept from four o'clock In the after noon until midnight and then kept watch alone, a. the girl had done, until eight. During that period they remained Inside the hut. The day, from eight until four, they spent out of doors, when the condition of the weather made this possible, either at work or merely tramping up and down for exercise. At first there was a good deal of work to do. Tearing down the sheds which clustered about the hut, and reducing their frames and planking to was an arduous task, but he worked at It until It waa done, Jeanne standing sentinel all the time. When it was done, they were practically secure tigalnst surprise, for from their windows, with the aid of a field glass which Cayley had found In the observatory, they were able to sweep tho whole .beach absolutely clean. In both directions. And almost every day while the light lasted, with Jeanne, armed with the revolver, keeping watch before the but. Cayley took to bis wings and patrolled the beach, from the glacier to the promontory, high up above the level of the crest of the cliff. His flight was always along the same, track. He never winged his way Inland nor out to sea. There were. two reasons for this. He dared not go so far away from Jeanne that a flash and a swoop would not bring blm to her Bide. The other reason was, that if a superstitious fear were really of this great man-birwhat deterred their enemy from at tacking them, it was well to let blm believe that immunity from this por tent could be secured by keeping away from this particular stretch of beach. As the shortening days sped by and began to get themselves reckoned Into weeks, the conviction grew upon Philip and Jeanne that their securest protection lay in bis wings, in the terrorizing effect upon their invisible, silent enemy of the majestic winged apparition which was so often seen soaring In mldsky above the hut and the little stretch of beach surrounding It Something was protecting them evidently. Almost every week brought some evidence, not only of. the exis tence but the nearness of their enemy, Tbey never actually caught Bight or sound of him, but some times when tho wind blew from the right quarter they could make out with their a wrack of brownish smoke, such as would be given off by burning whale oil, drifting down from somewhere along the glacier, and made visible by the dazzling whiteness of that background. And sometimes they saw track In the newly fallen snow, never coming very near the hut, but trespassing a little way, either down from the glacier or up from the headland, upon the stretch of beach they were defending. They never found the tracks of more than a single man, and these were always the same. So that tbey came to believe, although they could not know, that tbey had only one man to deal with. They sometimes speculated on the question whether ho was Roscoe or some other member of the Walrus crew; really, in fact, they found it Impossible to hope that it was any other than he. They got proof of his Identity, or what amounted to It along toward ti e end of October. Cayley's keen eyes caught, one day, from up aloft where he was soaring, the glint of something on the beach near tho foot of the headland. He circled down In a long swoop, caught It up without alighting and mounted into the air, a trick of aeronautics which made Jeanne, accustomed as she was by now to seeing him in flight, catch ber breath a little. When he descended and alighted beside ber a few moment, later, he showed her a Bheath knife, the haft of which wa. a rudely carved walrus tusk. The band of the last user of it had had blood upon it, and Its Imprint upon the surface of the ivory was plainly to be seen. The line. In the palm were traceable and, lengthwise, along the aide of the handle, the print of an Immense thumb. "You .ee," .aid Cayley quietly, "he was using this knife The girl paled a little a. .he handed tween . amazingly tha weapon back to blm, but. she spokl quietly enough; "If. good to know," she said, "af most a relief." CHAPTER XVIII. An Attack. The fact that their enemy wn alone and that be was Hom-ublmsel was responsible for the lonvlnlo that Cayley. wings were all Ihn stood between them and an attn No terror attributable to hu causes would have held back solitary and altogether denprate I jl i 1 cast hl The thing In the situation caused Cayley tho most uneaalnet wn. the fear that some time or othi Roscoe would solve the niyMiT would wee him In the very act o taking to the air, This fear suggeste an expedient to him one day as h w as flying along near the snow crest ed edge of tho cliff. "I don't know why I never though of It before," he anlit to Jeanne as h alighted beside her a moment or tw afterward; "but I've got It now to prevent Itoscoo from ever; ii.il i'l! fire-woo- d d field-glas- s, "What Do Wa Do to Sentinels Go to Sleep?" Wh.J'i I r solving the mystery of your guardlai angel I thought of it when I saw th mound up on the cliff hend that I formed by tho (observatory. It can' be burled so very deep In the snov because the mound Isn't so very big I'm going up there now to dig it out enough, at least, so that I can taki wing from there." "You never can dig out enough sno to get a running start up there," shi objected. "I Bha'n't have to. I'll Just dive of the cliff." "Philip, you Bha'n't!" "Why notr "You know what you told me your self. That none of the big birds cat take to the air without a runnlnj start; and aboit taking pelicans ant birds like tbat up Into high bulldlngt and throwing them out of windows and how they were always killed." "That, because they've only Non Instead of intelligence. of their family had ever been throwt .out of window, before, and they didn' know what to do. But I can get mj start quite as safely that way as an) other. Oh, yes, I've done It. Do yot Imagine. Jeanne dear, that I'd take at unnecessary risk so long a. my lift I. the only possible protection ther ' Is for yours?" He spent the rest of the day tun nelling out from the observatory. IU did not dig In the snow; be simply packed it, gradually enlarging tb space from a section the size of the pilot bouse door to a space at the cliff', edge wide enough for the ful spread of hi. wings. Jeanne was watching on the beach when he made hi. first flight from this aerie, and, in spite of her con fldence In his powers, she endured a horrible moment or two. For he came hurtling down, head first, at an angle of CO degrees; and he had traversed s of the distance to the beach before his line deflected outward and began curving up toward the horizontal. When she saw that he was safe, that he had really done the thing he had said be could, she dropped down which was spread upon a bear-skin- , before the hut, and shut her eyes, for what she had seen had turned her a bit giddy. That feeling passed In a moment She opened her eyes and lay, stretched at full length, upon the bearskin, watching htm as he wheeled and dipped, then towered aloft again in that fading violet sky, supremely masterful, majestically dominant ol the unstable element he bad conquered. She sat up suddenly, erect,, upon the bear skin, with the realization that It was nearly dark. Their hours of daylight were getting very scanty now, Today', allowance was gone, although it was not yet three in the aft ernoon. She looked a'oft for CByley, but could not see him. Then, the next moment, she heard the whine of the air through his rigging, and he sailed down on a long slant and alighted be sldo her. He got clear of his planes with art unaccountable air. of haste, and held out both hands to help her rise. "What do we do with sentinels who go to sleep on duty?" he questioned with a laugh. "I wasn't asleep," she said contrite ly, "but it was JuBt about as bad. I was thinking" She paused there, then added, "about you. What's the sentence of the court?" Already he had his wings folded up and wa. handing them to her. . (TO BE CONTINUED.) f two-third- I: i i'l ' |