The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-09-14
Page of
Interest
THE SKY-MAN
BY
HENRY MITCHELL WEBSTER
luther tsriA Spnae| NaWTni Of Calumet X
Copyright 1910 by The Century Company.

ne nAH JUST Witnessed were Te&ls VI
a trick the mysterious Arctic light
had played upon his tired eyes. But
there remained upon that vacant
scene two material reminders OF the
tragedy to which it mad afforded
setting Dne Nss a smudge of Grim
son on the snow: the othtr. little
distance OF. just this side the ICY
itdge over which the last OF the party
had gone scram bling moment be
fore. was the strange looking blunt
stick which he had seen i'll the as
sassins hand
Cayley flew a little lower his wings
almost sktmmeriug the ice. Finally.
reaching the spot where the thing had
/ fallen, he aiighted and picked IL up.
Whether its possessur had valued II.
or not. whether or not he might he
expected 10 return for II, Cayley did
not much care.
! He stood tor some time turning the
thing over in his hands. puzzling over
II. trying 10 make out how II could
have been used as the instrument of
propulsion to that deadly ivory dart
There was groove on one side Of
II. with a small! ivory plug at the
end The other end was Curiously
shaped. misshapen, rather. for.
held. Cayley could not make 1t fit
MS hand. whatever position he held
IL in.
. MzFPeidtnoafcfwou dnetaoi shrdsh NIB
Giving UP the problem at last, he
tuckei the stick into his belt slipped
his arm through the strap in the
frame work of his aeroplaue and pre-
pared for flight. He had little diff
Guilty getting up. owing to the absence
OF breeze at this point. Finally he
was obliged 10 climb, with a good deal
of labor, the icy ridge up which he had
watched the little party OF murderers
scrambling
Al the crest he cast a glance around.
looking for them, but saw no signs of
them. Then, getting a favorable slant
of the wind he mounted again into
the element he now called his own
A heavy fog was filing up the cup
/ shaped valley. like a lake, and when
he had lowered through 1t and into
the clear, sparkling. unvexed air
9ore II. he found, rolled out beneath
him, as far as he could see in every
direction, what looked, under the
slanting rays of the sun. like a warm.
| heecy, rose colored blanket.
But somehow. the return of the up
! per air. even the drawing of that great
cloud curtain across the earth, failed
4 W GAhf Rttth 10 dS icy thaI ilOOu OF
serene happiness which he had en-
I joyed an hour before He tried hard
! to recover it, and his failure to do So
i irritated him. In vain, he asked Hill
+ self what those little figures on the
/ ice could mean to him, or he to them.
/ in vain, he told himself that the thing
/ he had seen was nothing bnt a pic
! ture--a puppet show
/ lie began wheeling a great spiral In
ND ~ txrINA 1
the intensity of the cold and the drum
ming of the blood In his temples warn
ed him TO descend again.
But nigh or low, some invisible mag
net held him over the spot where he
mad witnessed that unexplained TRACE
/ dN' an intense curiosity that would
not let him go until he had in some
way. accounted for the flying fate that
go silently, had overtaken the leather
cIad man down there on the Ice.
FIVE years before Philip Cayley
I would have passed for "A good exam
pie OF that type of clean -limbed. clean
minded, iikable young man which the
j best of our civilization seems to be
howering into. Physically, 1t would
nave been hard to suggest an improve
ment In him, he approached SO near
the ldeal standards He was fine
I grained, supple. slender small iointed
thorough bred from head to heel.
Intellectually. he had been good to
\ go through the Academy at West Point
with credit. and TO graduate high
enough in his class To he assigned to
service in ,he cavalry. His standards
OF conduct his ideas OF honor and
morality, had been about the same as
those OF the best third of his class
mates. If his fellow officers in the
. Philippines, during the year or two
? he had n he ba,