Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-08-08

his arm. that his eye fell upon the rose
wood box and the morocco-bound book
which lay beside it.
Her eye followed his. They're fath-
er's papers" she said, 1T found the box
in here, That's why 1 stayed. I had
come ashore" 9
Wait a minute" he interrupted. He
took up the book with a g~entleness
almost reverent, laid it in the little
chest and set it down on the floor be-
side the bunk.
The quality of the act brought the
too ready TO her eyes but he did
not look up at her to surprise them
there. Now" he said. I'm going to
take off these boots of yours, which are
wet, but which will serve excellently.
nevertheless, for a pillow, and you are
to take off that heavy coat and get
inside this bag. Have o ever slept in
one?"
He was already tugging at one OF the
boots. and her protest went unheeded-
it was only a ~half-hearted protest after
all.
When he had taken off the boots she
submitted. without demur, to his I'M
fastening the frogs on her heavy seal
skin coat and slipping 1t off her
shoulders.
When finally, with some assistance
from him. she nestled down inside the
great fleece-lined bag, whe he had
rolled her small boots into a bundle
and made a pillow of them for her
head, as he had said he would, she ex-
claimed, half-rebelliously, at the COM
fort of it all.
1T is SO deliciously warm and soft"
she said. Il didn't know you were
just being a luxurious sybarite when
you refused a mattress and a pair of
blankets on the yacht. If only you
could be warm. too, and comfortable"
II shall be-. he assured her. I'll make
a cushion of that great coat of yours
and sit down here at the foot of the
bunk. You're not to bother about me-.
You're to prove the efficacy of the
sleeping-bag by going to sleep in it..
And what will you do all the while
sitting there and keeping watch? Would
you-would you like to read fathers
journal? II you would I'd like to have
you, after what you said long ago about
the men who risked and lost their lives
trying to reach the pole. I think If you
will read that book you will under
stand, in spite of your wings. And
well, I'd like 10 nave you understand"
He moved the bulrs-eye to another
part of the hut. where the light from it
would not shine in her eyes, and would
illuminate the pages of the book she
offered him to read, while he sat,
wrapped in her great coat, at the foot
of the bunk.
Once as he passed by her in the
completion of these arrangements. she
withdrew her hand from the bag and
held it out to him. you've been very
good to me- she said-"I don't mean
by risking your life and %plunging down
into that bank of fog when you knew 1
was in danger. A brave man would do
that, I suppose-some brave men, any
way. But you've been better than
that
He told her not to talk, but to go to
sleep. and, without any more words,
e~nsconced himself at her feet. drew his
legs up under him, tailor-fashion, and
began TO read.
She closed her eyes. or half closed
them, but under the shadow of her
lashes she watched his face. The light
did not shine in ahlrs illpmina ted
his. It was a beautiful face, but in a
wholly masculine way; the first beau
tiful mans face. she thought, she had
ever seen that had no trace of weak
ness or effeminacy about it. lit had
looked bravely into tempests. that face
-tempests of the soul, as web as those
of the open. cruel sky that he had
conquered.
But with all its strength. with all
its defiance, It showed a spirit, sensi-
tive. accessible to pain.
Watching him as he read the pages
of her fathers journal. she was as sure
the story Tom had told her about him
was false-no; II was not Toms false
hood; she knew hal he believed the
story-as sure he was innocent of that
imputed treachery torture as of
the murder of the man who had once
been his intimate friend, from which