The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-09-17
CHAPTER III.
Ii.s Murt.terer,s.

CHAPTER III.
Tne Muruerers.
Two men CLAD iB bear-skins We're
shutting rapidly along across the gia-
T cier. Dawn was already flooding the
Arctic sky With its amazing riot OF
/ color-~rose. green gold. violet and the
ice beneath their teet was rose color
with misty blue shadows in Ii.
The foremost oil the two wayfareSs
Z was a man OF gigantic stature, six
/ and IA half feet tall and of enormous
girth OF chest. yet, somehow, despite
his size and the ungain}y clothes he
wore. he contrised to preserve an air
almost of iightness; OF lean, compact
athletIcism, certainly 4 stranger.
meeting him anywhere and conten-
plating his a, formidable proportions.
and tnen locking mp past his great,
: blunt Jaw into his cold, light blue.
eheleric eyes. would be likely to shiv-
er a little and then get out OF his
way as soon AS possible.
He was walking steadily, CHANGING
neither to the right nor the left Even
over the treacherous glazed
surface OF the glacier, his great stride
carried him along at a pace which
his companion found il difficult to
keep up with. Besides. this compan-
Ion made his task the harder by al
(
track they wtre following. AMI casting
little furtiye. anxious glances al the
man beside him. In any other com
pany he would have been rather
striking figure himself. well above
middle height, powerfully made, and
with face that had lines OF experi-
ence and determination engraved in it.
But the compa rison awarfed him.
He seemed to be trying to make up
his mind to speak. and still TO find this
difficult thing TO do. At last. with
a deprecatory cough he began:
What l can't see is, Roscoe, what
you did IL for. 1t WAS all right TO do
IL II you were lingering out any gain
from It, We'd all agreed TO that
Anything for our common good, thats
out motto. But where's the gain In
killing just one poor fellow ont OF
party OF thirty He seemed a good
kind OF chap. too, and friendly spak-
en-. We didn't serve You like that,
when ypu come aboard the Wairus at
Cape Nome"
III would have cost You four men
10 do it, Ptanck. and you were short
handed al It was.
That wasn't why We didn't do it.
You was stranger and you was in
a bad way. There was a mob of men
gave you shelter and carried you Off
and made you regular sharin mem
Der OF the crew. or COURSE, IL we'd
had any reason To act contrary, We
have done so. And that's why il
seemed to us-to,. me l would say,
that you probably had some reason
In this case, here. And, welI---we'd
like to know what il Is"
But the man he had addressed as
Roscoe" strobe on with una ated
pace. as II he had not heard, For
any attention he paid To his queationer.
he might have been alone in that ex-
panse OF ice and sky.
Pianek accepted the silent rebuff
as II II had been only what he had
expected, but he sighed regretfuliy.
He had once known, and il was only
four years ago. that same swakgering
trick Of eonfemptuous authority him.
self. He Trad been master the most
tSrannieal sort OF master, some say.
10 be found anywhere In the world,
the captain of an American whaler
And this very man, at whose heels he
was snrainbling along over the Ice, had
been one of his crew: had never APP
preached the quarter deck where he
raigned supreme. without an apollo
gettc hand at his fereIoek, and had
always passed to the ieeward side of
him up on deck.
But the Walras had been destined
never 10 see port again. She fingered
100 long on the whaling grounds to
get back through Behring Strait that
TALL. and failed. In. the attempt to
make Mckenzie Bay, where other
whalers in similar plight put in for
the winter. Instead of this friendly
harbor, she was caught In the pack
and carried, relentlessiy, north and
westward. The milling pressure OF
great masses of ice crushed In her
stout hull. 80 that the open water
they had been hoping for. became. at
once, their deadIlest peril. The mo-
ment the Ice broke away she would
go To the bottom like plummet
ITO be continued)
He who sees only the seamy side
OF life IL dead already.
y % :