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Show I - ; v : H ilTT The Two Older Men Exchanged a Quick Glance. The Yacht Had Disappeared. C L-IU W.ROS3EH 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 entertained enter-tained little doubt that she was safely bidden somewhere about the ship. Cayley's warning, together with the confession of the Portuguese, Miguel, had caused them to steal alongside the Aurora as silently as possible. Not a word had been spoken by any of the party, and the sound of the rising wind bad drowned the creak of their oars. Half a dozen well armed men had stolen aboard over the bows to reconnolter. 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, unobserved, un-observed, to a position amidships. Here, under cover of a brisk revolver-fire, revolver-fire, they had made It possible for the rent 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 Aurora, Au-rora, and made a spirited resistance before they were finally overpowered. The Aurora's people, under the cool headed command of Warner and the elder Fanshaw, had proceeded In a brisk, scientific, military style that had spared tbem many serious casualties. 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 volunteer 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 before be-fore It was possible to form any definite 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 consciousness, con-sciousness, uttered a low moan for help, which waa 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 observation, observa-tion, before they reallxed 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 blm down from the bridge and thence to the now deserted smoking room, forward. Tom submitted sub-mitted to be led blindly along, and did not demur when his father halted beside be-side a big leather sofa and told him to He down upon It Since that momentary mo-mentary outburst of his upon the bridge, the young man bad been un-nafurally un-nafurally calm. Ills 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 blm, but there was no dawn of a corresponding calmness In his face. It had aged whole years over night "It'a 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 ua 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 ctber from the yacht was a plere of masterly strategy, lie 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 lth 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 hesd and made blm mad." I He was probably killed In the first volley our people fired when they gu aboard." said Tom dully. -He alone could have accounted for half a doio of you. If he'd ever had a chance a giant like that." "A giant!" "I think he must hse been tbe leader," said Tom. "He was the first man to come aboard, certainly." "Hut what makes you call him a giant r "Because he literally was. lie struck me down with Just one blow, and as he raised his arm to strike I saw that his shoulder-cap waa above the level of uiy 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 tbe details of the fight and how different members of the crew had borne themselves. Hut bis 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 lift 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 tho survivors or the slain of the Walrus party, who In any way resembled the monHter Torn 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 together to-gether there, but in this last hour he had sounded a new abyss beneath It all. lie 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 Koscoe from the time when Captain Planck hud taken him aboard the Walrus, down to the hour last night when he bad sprung Into his boat again and pulled shoreward. Captain I'lanck was dying, and old Mr. Fanshaw's queNtions had enabled blm to enjoy the luxury of a full confession. So they knew now, those two men who stood there on the bridge, white-lipped, white-lipped, talking over tho horror of the thing they knew that Jeanne was not alone upon that terrible frozen shore. 1 ho man Roscue 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 tho deck toward the bridge ladder, and, to their amazement, amaze-ment, when he looked up at them, they saw that somehow, his face had cleared. Thcro 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 living, liv-ing, and even hoping." The two older men exchanged a jittift glanco. He was not to know about Roscoe. If he had found something some-thing to hope for. no matter how illusory, il-lusory, he should be allowed to keep It to hug It to bis 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. Torn?" his father asked unsteadily. "It's Its Cayley. He's there with her; I'm sure he Is." 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 ber, I think. I'm quite sure she has with blm. 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 h 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. CHAPT ERXII. Cayley's Premise. For this small mercy Cayley thanked God. The girl did not understand. Hhe was rubbing those sleepy eyes of hers and putting back. Into place, stray locks of hair that were In th way. "The floe must have gone to pieces," she said, "and they've drifted off In the fog without knowing tt. 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 casually casual-ly for an answer, but not getting It, remained looking Intently Into his eyes. "Mr. Cayley," she akd presently, 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?" "1 told you the truth last night. I can't Imagine any possibility by which the men who came here on the Walrus 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 m have all been killed before they coul get bark to shore, or some of thtn nisy have bwn captured No, I really don't think you need worry about tbem " Hue drew a long deep breath, flung out her arms w ide, and then stretched theni skyward. "What a day It Is. Waa there ever stn h a dsy don there In that warm green world that people i live In? Oh, I don't wonder that yon I love tt I wish I could fiy as you do. Out since I can't, for this oae day you munt stay down hero upon the earth with nie." Her mention of bis wings gave him his first faint perception of the line tho struggle would take. His mind flashed for an Instant into the position posi-tion which her own would take when she should know the truth. To her It It would not seem that they were caxtaways together. He was not marooned ma-rooned here on 'bis shore. His ship was walling 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 questions." ques-tions." He met ber smiling eyes, and a smile came, unbidden, Into his own, "You've forgiven me already, I see," he said. "What waa 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?" Csyley had to turn away from her as site said that. The remorseless Irony of the situation was getting beyond 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 pnges of "Alice In Wonderland" about hunting lor a walrus "God!" he whispered as he turned away "My God!" He had bis revolver, and besides the six cartridges which the cylinder contained, con-tained, there were, perhaps, 30 In his belt For how many days, or weeks, would they avail to keep off starvation? starva-tion? Hut his face was composed again when he turned back to her. "There are two things that come before breakfast," break-fast," he said "fire and water. There Is a line of driftwood down the beach to the westward, there at the foot of tbe talus. When we get a fire going go-ing " he stopped himself short. "I was going to say that we could melt some tee 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 s'netblng of the sort In the hut here." She shook her head. "They're completely abandoned," she told htm. "Our shore party searrhed them first of all, and afterward Uncle Jerry and 1 searched them throngh again. There la 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 yesterday yes-terday afternoon while the yacht was in the harbor may take on a different meaning this morning" He disappeared tbrougn the doorway, door-way, and two minutes later she saw him coming back with a big battered-looking 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 waa lying In great drifts along the lower slop of the talus. Jeann' accompanied htm upon his quest of It and with small loss of time and no trouble at all they i collected an armful They laid their fire upon a great flat atone In front of tbe hut. for the outdoor day was too fine to abandon for 'he dark and damp In the Interior, and soon they had tbe Ore blaiinj cheerfully. For a whiio tiny bat, side by side, upon his gre.V sheepskin, warming their fingers and wut lung the drip of the melting Ice In the biscuit tin. Hut presi ntly Cayley got to his leet "Hreakfust!" he said. "Is there to be anything besides a good big drink of water apiece? If there Isn't, I'd rather not think about It until the yacht comes buck." "Unless I'm mistaken, there's an excellent breakfast waiting for us not far from where we got the fire wood. Hut 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. "Ho you know anything about firearms?" fire-arms?" he asked. "If you're accustomed accus-tomed to shooting, I'll leave my revolver re-volver with you. No," he went on, answering the question which she bad not spoken "no, I don't foresee any danger to you. It's Just on general principles." "I'm a pretty good shot. Hut 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 thut 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 tsbot. 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 freh sticks to the fire, and then, In d fault of any more active occupation, took up the red bound book w hich lay beside be-side her and began once more to pe-ruse pe-ruse Its pages. She had by no means exhausted them. In ber reading cl the night before, she had skipped the pages of scientific description foi those parts of the journal which were most purely personal. Kven now the whole pages of carefully tabulated data concerning tbe 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 tbe book down half reluctantly. Evidently his quest for breakfast had not been In vain; he had a bs black and white bird In his band. "I c you suppose It's fit to eat? sh called out to him. "How In the world did you manage to kill It without tn revolver?" "Fit to eat! Its a duck. What's more. Its an elder, which means thai her coat Is worth saving" "Hut how did you contrive to kill her?" "I didn't. She killed bers-lf. Sl was flying too low last nliclit. I supposegoing sup-posegoing down the gale, and In th fog she went smack Into the side ot the cliff and broke her neck. That wai a very destructive stoim for the birds There must be 1.0 of them, of one kind and anietsier, lying dead there aloni the top of the talus, at the foot of the cliff." ITO PK OOXTINfKH I Prayer Unanswered. It hsd ben raining all day and Its tie Mark, shut up In the house, was anxious to get out and play, lilt mother. In another room, thought that tbe beard htm talking, and pre ently Inquired to whom. "I was tslklng to God, msrama." the child replied. "I asked Him to must It stop raining so I could go outdoors but I don't think He was very n'lit about It. He rever let on tl:et tit heard me at all!" SYNOPSIS. .. -. Philip C'aylev, accused of crime of Hhlrh lis la not guilty, resign from th (irmy In disgrace ami tils affection for lil friend, IJeut. Perry Hunter, turns to hittred. Oavjey iiwki solitude, where he perfects a flying machine. While soaring over th Arctic, regions, ho pick up a curiously shaped mirk ho had aon In tho assassin a hand. Mounting again, ha dl-cove dl-cove a yacht anchored In tho bay. Descending De-scending near I ho steamnr, ha meete a girl on an lee floe. He li-arna that tho lilil'a natna la Jranna Fielding and that tho yarlit ha coiiir north to cek eigne if her father. Captain Molding, an erotic explorer. A party from tho yacht la making ma-king aearrh nhur. After Cayley il. parts Janne flnda that ha tiad dropped a ru-rioiialy-aliaped ath-k. CMptnln I'lom k and tho aurvlvlng erew of his wrecked whaler are In hiding on the eoast. A giant ruf-tlmi ruf-tlmi named Koar-oo. had murd.-red Field lug snd hla two companions, aftor tho e-lloror e-lloror had reyoaled the location of an onnrmmie ledge of pure gold. Il weoo then t'Mik romrnand of the puriv. It dnvelopa that tho ruffian had committed tha murder mur-der witnessed by Cayley. Idiseue plain, to rapture tho yaeht and es.-ape with a big load of gold. Jranna tells Kattshaw, owner of tho yarht, shout tha visit of tho aky-man and shows lilm the slli-k left by t'nvley. Kanshaw deelure that It Is an Ksklmo throwing sllrk, uaed to shoot darts. Tom Kanshaw returns frfim tho eeurrhlng party with a apralned ankle, ferry Hunter Is found murdered and Cayley Is arriiseii of the crime but Jeanne believes him Innocent. A relief party goes tn find the searcher. Tom profeasea hla love for Jeanne. Hhe rowa aihnre and enters an abandoned hut, and there find her father's diary, which discloses the explorer's ex-plorer's suspicion of Ko-oe. Tho ruffian ruf-fian return to the hut and sees Jeanne. He I Intent on murder, when the skyman sky-man swoop down and th ruffian flee. Jeanne give Cayley hr father's diary t read. 1 CHAPTER X. Continued. Tbe scene before his eyes was beautiful, beau-tiful, with that stupendous beauty that only the arctic can attain. Tbe harbor har-bor and beyond It, far out to sea-clear sea-clear to tbe horixen, was filled with great plunging, churning masses of Ice, all drenched In color by the low-hanging low-hanging arctic sun violet, rose, pure golden yellow and emerald green, and a white whose Incandescence fairly subbed the eye. And as those great moving masses ground together, they flung, high Into the air, broad shimmering veils of rose-colored tpray. Of the floe, which tbey had considered consid-ered stable as the land Itself, there was no longer any sign. There waa nothing there, nothing at all to greet their eyes, to seaward, but the savage beauty of the Ice. The yacht had disappeared. CHAPTER XI, The Aurora. 1 tell you sir, the thing Is beyond human possibility. There Is no help no human help In the world. I would swear to that before God. Hut I think you must know It as well as 1 do." Captain Warner, standing upon the Aurora's bridge, was the speaker. Tbe two Fansbaws, father and son. their fares gray with despair, turned away and Iorkd over the great mass e of loose, churning field Ice, which, filling the sea out to tbe utmost h orison, ori-son, confirmed the captain's words. "How long" Tom Fanshaw began, any possible chance I would take It .but there Is none stone tn the world. then be paused, moistened his lips and rubbed them roughly with hla hand "How long," he repeated, "shall we have to wait before It opens up?" "It won't open up again this seasonnot sea-sonnot if I know anything about the arctic," said the captain. "It will freeze, though," Mr. Fanshaw Fan-shaw said, "freexe 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. Hut that warm current which caught Fielding's ship, which caught tbe Walrus the current which makes, every summer apparently, that long gap of open water wa-ter which enabled us to reach tbe land that Fielding reached that current cur-rent would keep loose field Ice floating about for at least another month." Tom Fanahaw's eyes had almost the light of madness In them. "Hut she can't live a month!" he cried. "She's alono, unarmed! She has no food; no shelter but those bare huts!" "Tbe Walrus people doubtless left some stores there. If she could find them," said Captain Warner. "But still, what you aay la perfectly true. She can bardly hope to keep a live a week." "Then," said Tom, In dull, passionate 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 Aurora 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 leas 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. As for the Aurora herself. If she had not been built the way she la, she would have been crushed hours ago. And If 1 were to lower tbe propeller and start the engines, they would simply twist the screw off of her before she bad gone a ship's length, and leave us helpless In the event of our ever finding 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 r-sponslblllty. If we ever do find open water, then I'll do whatever you say. I will take you to I'olnt Harrow and the yacht can winter there. Then when the pack Is solid, If you can find dogs and sledges, you can attempt at-tempt the journey across the ice. 1 don't believe It can be done. I don't believe there Is a chance In a hundred 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 yacbt back to San Francisco, refit her and come bark next summer. I tbink that with our knowledge of the currents 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 in the deep weather-beaten weather-beaten furrows of bis cheeks. "God |