Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-01
CHAPTER XVI.
Footprints.

Nature had nothing to do with the
| formation of 1t, SO much was clear
enough. 1t had been cut out by hand,
and evidently with infinite labor.
| Flashing his bull's-eye over II did not
enable him to see the end Of it. but 1t
did reveal a series of notches running
straight up the two opposite surfaces
| The only purpose they could serve would
be to make possible the ascent of the
chimney.
two looked at each other, completely
puzzled.
Some one must have made it she
nard to make-a tunnel right up through
| the ice like that. But what IL, the world
can they have made it for?"
! I've no idea," he confessed. but it
| where
! Don't follow It too far" she eau
toned; 1T would only need one foot to
slip off one of those icy notches TO bring
| about dTeadfully ugly fall
| One couldn't fall far down tube of
that diameter. unless he had completely
lost his nerve. for there's always cnance
| TO catch ones self And you're to remem-
Der that I'm used to falling. No. / II be
as safe up there as would on a turn
plke.-Yes. really
With that and a nod of reinsurance
ne scrambled up into the mouth of the
long chimney He had taken his bull's
eye with him, so the girl was left in the
dark. She dropped down on the heap of
bear skins to wait for him.
| She had no means of measuring the
time. and it seemed a perfectly intermin-
able while before she heard Cayley re-
turning down the ice chimney. Had she
known how long it really was. she would
have been justified in feeling seriously
worried about him, but not knowing, she
attributed the seeming duration of his
delay to the tedium of sitting in the
dark. with nothing to do. Even at that,
she was conscious of feeling of relief
when she heard him call out to her once
more, cheerfully. albeit somewhat hol-
lowly. from the chimney's mouth:
Jeanne. where are your
Here, just where you left me-
Here! All the while! You must be half
frozen I've been gone the better part of
an hour
Il didn't know how long it was. and l
kept thinking you'd be back any minute.
But where in the world have you
been?"
BY the time she asked that question
| they had CROPPED their way back into the
Storeroom and thence into the living room
of the hut, and by now she was looking
at him in the full light of day.
He dropped down, with rather explo-
sive sigh. upon one of the hunks and
poked tentatively at his thighs and
shoulders as If they were numb with
fatigue.
Il think by reasonable estimate" he
said, that chimney is five miles high. L
Kept going and going and going, till l
began to believe that there wasn't any
other. 1 slipped down yard as often as
l went up one. But / did get to the end
at last: and I'll give you thousand
suesses as to what | found there
no ahSor hwy 1,o /, dad II,
but not really? 1 did not mean that for
an honest guess at all. 1t was just the
first thing that came into my head. But
how could they pull the pilot house Of the
Phoenix up through that little hole in the
ice?'
We'll, to tell the truth. don't believe
they did," he answered. with hooking
seriousness. Its more likely that they
took it to pieces. and then rugged a boom
and tackle up at the cliffhead and hauled
it up outside. But when they got it up
there they put 1t together again right
across the assure, and then tunneled
down, or up. the whole depth of the cliff.
1t must have taken them weeks to do it,
and when it was done they had an inside
connection between it and the hut, SO
that they were quite independent of the
weather. And it must have been great
place to make observations from
Have BEEN" she echoed question: bly,.
Isn't it now?'
mo, because it's all showed and
frozen in. It's buried, 1 don't know how
many feet deep by this time. and dark.
Of course. as pocket. But everything
inside is quite undisturbed. doubt if a
single member of the Walrus crew ever
saw it, or even suspected that such
place existed"
Il wish I'd gone with you.'' she said.
do you SUPPOSE could have got up
there?''
''Oh, IL it were a matter of necessity.
yes. 1 could make fast a line around
you. and then / could go ahead as safe
guard in case of slips. But 1 shouldn't
advise you to try it for fun
She acquiesced regretfully: Il suppose
not. if 1t tired you out like that. you who
are so strong and tireless. But it sounds
inviting. somehow-the pilot house of the
Phoenix perched away up there on the
cliff. and all buried in snow 1 was there
for a few minutes once the day father
sailed" After moments silence, You
say everything was left apparently undis-
turbed. What is there up there?"
He unbuttoned his jacket and took from
an inner pocket a scrap of paper.
Being a methodical person. he ex-
planned, Il made an inventory. It's really
quite respectable list"
She seated herself beside him on the
bunk as if to read the paper.
Il imagine you will need an interpre-
ter" he said. I've half forgotten what
these tracks mean myself. My hands
were so stiff with the cold it wasn't very
easy to write. Butt that first word is tele-
scope. And then there are the meteorolog-
ical instruments, barOmeters, thermom-
eters, and so on, and the PhOenix's COM
pass, Sextant and chrOnOmeter miscro-
scope, a paraffin oven and big chunk Of
paraffin, an oil lamp, a five-gallon can
about half full of OIL and a small stove
There was a providential treasure for me
in the form of a razor, which they used,
/ suppose for cutting miscrocopic sec
lions with. I'm glad they hadn't mi
crotone to do it properly"
"You didn't find comb for me, did
you?" she asked Because. unless you
did. or until you do, you won't be allowed
to use the razor
II suppose l could make you one, or
sort of one. 1t would be genuine ivory,
anyway"
He had come. apparently, to the end of
the list.
Well" she said. II suppose we might
find something to do with almost any one
of those things; some of them will be
useful, certainly And it's pleasant. some
how, to think of our little pilot house, all
showed in. up there on the cliffhead. and
of our inside passage leading up to it"
That's quite true" he said. Il sup
pose it's all romantic nonsense but IL
does give one a certain feeling of secu
rity . However" he went on.
we're not reduced as yet to anything as
intangible as that as a subject for giving
list yet. I've saved the best till the last
as he spoke She did not attempt to read
what he had written, but sat there beside
him. her hands clasped about one knee.
h0Otod which