Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1910-08-30
tConfinusa From Yesterday,

Yes. it's beautiful But.
Philip, it's dead Dead"
Not this air that has ozone spark
ling all through it. It is alive enough
to make your blood dance. It's doing
that now
He tried to persuade her to take a
little exercise along the length Of the
tunnel. but she demurred to that. In
stead, she asked him to bring out some
bearskins and let her sit there at the
cliff-head looking out.
And" she supplemented. IF you
want to know what should like most
of all, Il would be to have you bring
flying again, and a fieId-glass that I
can watch you through
He felt some hesitation, partly out
of fear of leaving her and partly
from a doubt concerning his own
strength; but neither Of these reasons
was one he cared to avow. So he un-
furled the bundle that had lain disused
SO long. spread and frightened and test
ed 1t, and at last, with a nod OF fare
well to the girl, dived Off the cliff
head.
Any doubt he may have had concern
ing his strength disappeared at once.
The mere touch OF those great wings OF
his seemed to bring It all back, and
hope and Joy and confidence along
with It.
He made his dive as shallow as pos
sible, and In the sheer exuberance OF
delight at being once more a-wing,
he beat his way aloft again by main
strength, towering like falcon All
his old power was here unimpaired, yet
every sensation It brought him was
heightened and made thrilling by
long disuse. By means of those
great, obedient wings of his he
played upon the capicious yag-
rant air with the superb insolence OF
mastery. Every trick of flight was at
his command. the flashing dive of the
piratical frigate bird, the corkscrew
spiral Of the tern. the plummet-like
pounce of the hawk, and, at last, the
majestic, soaring drift of the king of
them all, the albatross.
So he hung there in mid-sky. and the
world, white. frozen. immaculate
looked far away. The old, god-like
serenity, untroubled, untrammeled. un-
afraid. came back to him. The soul
opened it's gates, up here, lost its
boundaries, and all the spirit of the sky
come in, immense, cold, clear as the all
pervading ether. This was Nirvana,
though the old Buddhist adopts who
had philosophical about 1t had never
conquered the sky, had never bathed
in it as Cayley on his wings was bath
Ing now.
The declining moon sank lower. till
the refracting ice crystals that filed
the air caught its light slantwise and
danced with it so that 1t fickered like
q will-o'- -the-wisp. The sky deepened
from its bright steel-blue to purple. The
silver light upon the snow faded,
through lavender and lilac. to a pur-
pie of its own, only less deep than that
OF the sky itself. But the stars burned
brighter and brighter, until II almost
seemed they sang
"Harping in loud and solemn choir
With inexpensive notes. !.
The words projected themselves quite
unsought into his mind. He spent a
moment or two. wondering where they
came from, and then it came to him.
1t was a part of two lines from the
Hymn on the Nativity.
Somehow, the thought of Christmas
gave his soul a wrench that brought 1t
back into the world again. They had
lost their reckoning of time, and. for
anything he knew, this might be Christ
mas day. Perhaps those stars were
caroling their Christmas chimes. Per-
haps. down in the world of men, the
windows were hung with holly and
doorways with mistletoe.
Before his thoughts had advanced as
far as that he was flying down toward
the cliff-head. He could only guess
at the length of time that had elapsed
since he left Jeanne, on her heap of
skins, there In the mouth OF the snow
tunnel It must have been on hour or
more. for the moon had been shining
when he started. and now almost the
last of its twilight had died on the
horizon.