Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-08-16
y Henry Kitcheu Webster

fire burning all day. 1t would not do
to waste a single match out Of their
scapty store, TO light a new one In
the hut when Philips fireplace should
be ready for it.
At some time along the middle of the
day they had knocked off for long
enough to finish the duck. He had
said he did not want to stop for a
regular meal until the fireplace wa
done, and she, in the enthusiasm OF
n FIRST real manual labor she had
ever done IN her life, was as unwilling
TO rest as he. Since luncheon, or what
had passed for it, they had hardly ex-
changed a dozen words. She had some
times stood for a moment in the door,
way Of the hut, on her return with a
fresh load of wood, and given him a
nod Of encouragement, and then imn1e-
diately set out again.
He had told her at luncheon time
that he relied on her to stop working
before she had overfatigued herself. As
the afternoon wore along a feeling that
II she paused al all she would find she
was tired enough to quit work Alto
gether for the day drove her on to
work a little faster and more continu-
ously.
When Philip finally had his fireplace
rebuilt IN q temporary fashion which
he thought would serve till greater
leisure Should allow him to perfect 1t
he stepped outside the hut and looked,
nrst down and then up the shore in
search for her, and was disappointed
at finding her nowhere in sight.
The afternoon was well advanced and
the pitiless, binding white light of mid
day was already submitting to refrac-
ton by the ice crystals which filled the
lower strata OF the atmosphere into
the amazing debauch of colors which
marks an Arctic evening. The sun
had dipped below the crest of coast
hills n cliff. Their p~recipitous sides
In the shadow glowed with the blue Of
pure sapphire: the icy sands Of the
beach, sloping gradually Of to the sea.
with the lighter, slightly striated,
bluish-green Of the turquoise. Out be-
hind the cliff head westward the hori-
ION was lost in golden vapor. The ice
was golden and the little lanes Of
troubled water between its heaving
masses molten gold.
If Philip could have caught sight Of
Jeanne anywhere in. the picture he
would have enjoyed the glory OF it as
a frame n background to herself:
but since she wal not there either to
enjoy it with him nor to make a part
Of his enjoyment Of it it struck him
only as a good effect Of natures
stupidity wasted.
The pile OF driftwood here beside the
door and the feathered spoil which she
had brought in from the talus meant
more to him as the mute evidence OF
her share in the partnership and gave
him q thrill OF keener emotion thai all
the sunsets in the world.
She must be dreadfully tired, he
thought, and with that thought de-
cided to set out to find her. First,
however. he transferred the remnants
Of the fire from the fat stone before
the hut to his newly constructed
hearth, heaped on more wood and
noted. with satisfaction. that his make
shift chimney drew well and did not
smoke intolerably. He had discovered
an empty eask under a heap of rub
hish in the storeroom. and his he
filed with chunks Of ice, and set by
the FIRE to melt.
Five minutes later he was just a
wheeling. glinting. sun-bathing speck
in the amber air, the thrilling. prinS-
ling. winelike air. He had taken to his
wigns upon leaving the hut simply be-
cause they offered him the quickest.
easiest way Of finding Jeanne. But
the substitution Of the delightful. easy
exercise of his power of flight for the
grubby toll at which he had spent the
day, the change from the damp. the
dark. the confinement of the hut to the
full glow of the sunshine and the free
dom of the skyss wide spaces, half in
toxicated him.