Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-29
CHAPTER XIV-Continued.
copyright, 1910,
BY the Century Company

w
obey orders now. But she did obey and
open door of the hut when she heard
Cayley fire for the first time. Just as
she reached it, she heard his second shot.
When she turned about, painting, to OBJ
serve the result of it, the two seemed to
her to be at horribly close quarters. The
bear, reared up on his hind legs, had just
lunged forward.
A bears motions are wonderfully and
most deceptively quick. Ungainy to the
eye, he can spring and strike with the
dazzling swiftness of a leopard But in
this case the man was gifted with super
human quicknesS, too. Probably without
that power of instantaneous coordination
of muscular effort he would never have
learned to fly. In the course of learning
to fly, during those five uninterrupted
years at Sandoval, and during those last
three months which he had spent almost
entirely in the air. he had developed the
quality still further.
He sprang back clear of the flashing,
scythelike cut of those terrible claws. n
little to the girls surprise and consider
ably to her alarm, he turned and went
sprinting up the beach toward the talus,
at full speed, the bear wounded, but not
III the ledSl QlSdD1e numbering dIleT HILL
1t takes a fast runner to outrun a bear,
but Cayley did it. When he reached the
foot of the talus the bear was twenty
PAGES behind him. She saw him stop
short, whirl round again and face his
pursuer with a shout
The bear also checked his speed and
reared up once more, towering, upon his
hind legs. Then Cayley fired twice, the
shots coming so closely together as to be
hardly distinguishable. One or both of
no, inc to- f,nn nffn ha
great yelowish-white mass tOttered for
ward, and collapsed in heap only a pace
or two from where Philip was standing.
He waved his hand at the girl, and
walked back for his wings. When she
met him, half way up the beach. he was
carefully taking the spent shells out of
his revolver, one at time, and deposit
ing them in his pocket. mo telling how
they may prove useful, he commented;
then. with a quick look into her face. Il
hope you weren't frightened when you
saw me run.
Il suppose 1 shouldn't have been, but
I'll have to confess that l was. You
weren't trying to get away from him, or
you wouldn't have run in that direction.
But it looked rather dreadful, just the
same. Why did you do it?''
I'VE were too far down the beach, too
near the waters edge before. 1t was too
late to skin him and cut him up tonight.
and I was afraid if storm We're to come
up before morning, really big storm, we
might lose him. 1t was a lot easier to
get him up the beach before 1 fired those
last two shots than it would have been
after L thought at first of running to-
ward the hut 1t occurred to me, only
just in time, that there was no use in
making an abattoir of your front yard
You thought of all that? At such a
time?'
That's the sort of time when one does
think of things, isn't it? It's what peo
pie call the spice of danger. Nobody
likes risk for it's own sake: | don't. at
least. But to have your mind work fast
and clearly, as it does at such times.
that's worth while. But there wasn't
any particular danger in this case, once
you were safely out of the way
What if you had falIen?' she sug-
gested.
mere was a chance of that If I had,
he'd proba bly, have gone over me, and
could have found my feet again as quick
ly as he.
They had reached the hut, and as he
finished speaking they entered it. Even
Philip caught his breath rather suddenly
with that first glance about it's trans
formed interior. The driftwood fire.
which glowed upon the hearth. filled the
whole room with light, and bathed the
walls and rafters with warm colors.
Here was their fortress-against the
cold and the dark; fortress, too, against
despair. That rude hearth which he had
built today was to be their altar of hope.
The girl stood looking al it a moment
in silence, her lips pressed tight together,
one outstretched hand cropping for the
door jamb behind her. if she wanted
the support of something. Even in this
warm freight she looked little pale.
BY an evident effort of will she was
breathing very deep and steadily. She
did not try to speak.
Cayley understood we'll enough what il
meant This place that they had come
back to for the night was home now.
probably the last home she would ever
have in the world if one were to balance
the chances fairly. Its warmth and light
and compa rative comfort did more to en-
force a realiZa ton of their tragic plight
than anything before had done. The thing
she was fighting with was a sudden wave
of plain terror.
Cayley went out into the little vestibule
and closed and bolted the outer door. He
contrived to waste a minute OF two over
the trifiing task, in order to give her that
moment by herself.
When he came back. closing the inner
door behind him as he did so, he found
that she had taken Off her cap and the
heavy fur coat which had numbered her
shoulders all day. and hung them upon d
convenient wooden peg in the wall. She
was standing near the fireplace now,
warming her cold fingers at the blaze.
Cayley started a little at sight of her.
for now she was transformed. too Stand
ing there, silhouetted against the blaze,
in her gray cardigan jacket and MOLE
skins, she looked like young boy. He
had discovered before this that there was
not a grain of false modesty about her;
nevertheless, it pleased him when, with a
certain charming frank simplicity, she
called his attention to her costume.
It's lucky thing" she observed.
that l dressed for a scramble over the
ice before coming ashore with uncle Jerry
and Mr.. Scales And lucky, too that 1
didn't change back when we returned to
the Aurora. / left it the second time
for a while in the dinghy. I'd have done
that just the same if I had dressed for
dinner that night, as 1 usually did i.
Yes" he said. "A skirt would have
been a pretty serious matter TO people i'll
our situation
Show me the rest of our house, she
commanded presently. This is the only
room I've seem
The subdivision of the hut was accom-
plished by an L-shaped partition seven
feet or so from the outer wall, around
two sides of it, 1t yielded two tiny, cubi-
cal bedrooms chat was the purpose which
the wooden bunk in each of them indi-
cated); and a third room of the same
width (about seven feet, but running the
entire length of the side of the hut near
est the cliff. This room had evidently
served for stores and for kitchen. since
part of the reconstructed fireplace pro-
jected into it. 1t was in this last room
where the greater part OF what the
Searchers from the Aurora had dismissed
as rubbish was accumulated.
Cayley did as the girl commanded, and
showed her every nook and cupboard
which the four walls of the hut contained.
When they returned to the living room
~r.I,A he Grn yIHn dcny nod f,xr,r an,