Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-09

! some extra sense. or, perhaps. through
all his senses at once. But he did not
need to explore the remoter recesses OF
the cave to make sure that Roscoe was
not there. The place cried aloud that II
! vas empty.
! Cayley shuddered, not with fear ano
yetswith a sensation stronger than dis
gust. 1t was as if leopard had beer
| standing over the deserted lair OF 9
hyena. A wild beasts lair 1t was and
not a human habitation.
The floor was Uttered with feathers and
I half-gnawed bones. The rocky walls
dripped with the oily SCOT OF his horrible
cooking. The foul air of the place was
of it lay in the fact that Roscoe was not
there.
! Cayley's reasoning faculties attacked
that blind, irrational horror with all their
force. From the condition of the fire II
was evident that Roscoe had been gone
that he would return soon. Cayley's ar
| rival in his absence really gave him an
| immense advantage. A man always
comes unwartly into the place he calls
| would have no chance at all against
Cayley's quick spring and the flash of
the long knife blade.
Certainly 1t was reasonable to expect
| that Roscoe would wait for another
moonrise before setting out on any seri-
sumption were correct, he might be re-
turning to the cave at any moment.
Cayley tried hard to force himself to
accept this line of reasoning-tO use 1t to
combat the shuddering horror which Ros-
GOES mere absence caused him.
He strobe a few PAGES forward into
the cave. then turned about and faced
the entrance. with the idea of selecting
good strategical position in which to
wait for Roscoe's return.
He realized almost Immediately, how
ever, that quite without reference to the
inexplicable terror which Roscoe's alb
sence seemed to cause him, he would be
unable to wait for his return here in the
cave. The stencil of the place was al
ready turning him sick, and the poison
Gus exhaustion of the air making his
eyes roll in his head.
He strobe abruptly back to the cave
alighted on something that made him
pause-something so strangely out of
keeping with its surroundings that it
caused hin-or he thought that was the
| reasOn-a sense of recognition, almost OF
familiarity.
The thing which SO evidently did not
belong to Roscoe that it seemed almost
to belong to Philip himself, was q gold
locket. It lay on a fiat bit of rock.
which seemed to serve Roscoes purpose
as table. The objects which surround
ed it-an irregular piece of raw walrus
hide, an overturned bottle of whale oil,
with smudgy wick in it, sailmaker's
needle and some rawlings of canvas, to-
gether 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 STOPPING to pick it up
was automatic.
He held it in his hand q moment as If
| he did not know quite what to do with
1t, then put it in his pocket and went
out of the cave. Only during the moment
when 1t 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 clean air
outside of the cave were all he needed
to revive him. physically. But to his
surprise they did not suffice to rid him
of the feeling which he regarded as SUI
perstitious, 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 ac-
cess to which would give her a tremen-
dous advantage over any invader. So
that. even supposing the worst-suppos-
ing that Roseoe's absence were taken to
mean that he had gone to make an at
tack on the pilot house, there could
hardly be doubt that Jeanne would kill
him.
His reasoning was all based on the as
sumption that the pilot house was mac