Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-09
Copyright, 1909. 1910. by the Success Company.

in his class to be assigned to service IL
the cavalry His standards OF conduct
| his ideas Of honor and moranty mao peer
about the same as those OF the pes
third Of his classmates. If his Fellow ON
GERS in the Philippines, during the year
| or two he had spent in the service, mao
| been asked to pick a flaw in him. which
! they would have been reluctant TO 90
they would have said that he seemed To
them a bit too thin-skinned and rather
fastfdious: that was what his chum and
only intimate friend. Perry Hunter, SAID
! about him at any rate
But he could afford to be fastidious'
for he had about all a man could want.
one would think. For three generations
they had taken wealth for granted In the
Cayley family, and with 1t had come
breeding security of social position. SIM
plicity and ease in making friends. both
among men and women. In short. there
could be no doubt at all that up to his
twenty-ninth year fate had been iron
ically kind to Philip Cayley. she nao
given him no hint. no preparation Tor tne
stunning blow that was to fall upon him,
suddenly. out of SO clear a sky!
When it did fall it cut his life ciean
across: SO that when he thought back
to that time now. it seemed to him that
the Lieat. Cayley of the United States
Army had died over here in the Philip
pines. and that he. the man VINO was
now soaring in those great circles
through the arctic sky. was chance IN
heritor of his name and of his memory
He had set out one day at the head or
small scouting party, the best-hkeo
man in the regiment, secure in the re-
spect, In the almost fatherly regard, of
his colonel. proudly conscious of the al
most idolatrous admiration OF his men
and of the younger officers. He had gone
out believing that no one ever mad
truer friend than he possessed in Perry
Hunter. his classmate at West Point, his
fellow-officer in the regiment, the conn.,
dant of all his hopes and ideals:
He had come back, after fortnight
absence. to find his name smeared with
disgrace himself judged and condemned
unheard. in the opinion Of the mess
And that was not the worst of It, The
same blow which had deprived him or
the regard of the only people In the
world who mattered to him. destroyed,
also, root and branch, his affection for
the one man Of whom he had made an
intimate. The only feeling that 1t would
be possible for him to entertain for
Perry Hunter again must be hait-pity-
ing half-incredulous contempt. AND II
that was his feeling for the man ne mad
trusted most and loved the most deeply,
what must it be for the rest OF human
kind? What did it matter what they
thought of him what they did to him!
All he wanted of human society was to
escape from 1t.
He fell to wondering, as he hung, sus-
pended. over that rosy expanse OF mccoy
fog, whether were the thing to do over
again. he would act as he had acted hVe
wears ago: whether he would content
himself with single disdainful denial or
the monstrous thing they charged him
with; whether he would resign again.
under fire. and go away, leaving his tar
nished name for the DAVIS to peck at.
Heretofore he had always answered
that question with a fierce affirmative.
Today it left him wondering. Had ne
STAYED had he paid the price that would
xt4 calR he
would never have found his wings, so
much was clear. He would never have
spent those four years in the wilderness,
working, experimenting, taking his life
In his hands. day after day, while he
mastered the art that no man nad ever
mastered before.
He had set himself this task because
it was the only one he knew that did not
involve contact with his fellow-beings.
He must have something that he could
two things that he had felt an overmas-
tering craving for. And the possibility
he had faced with a light heart every
morning-the possibility OF sudden and
violent death before night. had been no
more to him than an agreeable spice to
the days work.
1t was not until he had actually learned
to fly, had literally shaken the dust OF
the earth from his feet and taken to the
sky as his abode. that his wound had
healed Inc three nonths thdl ne ndu
spent in this upper arctic air. awning for
sixteen hours out of twenty-four. had
Gained him, put his nerves In tune again;
given him for men and their affairs
quiet indifference, In place Of the smart
ing contempt he had been hugging to his
breast before. Three months ago. at
sight of those little human dots crossing
the glacier, he would have wheeled aloft
and gone sailing away. Even month
ago he would hardly have hung. soaring
there. above the fog. waiting for it to
lift again the veil of mystery which 1t
had drawn across the tragic scene he had
just witnessed.
The month was August, and the long
arctic day had already begun to know its
diurnal twilight. A fortnight ago the