Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-14
THE SKY-MAN
BY
Henry Kitche11 Webster.
CHAPTER XXV-Continued.
Copyright, 1910,
By the Century Company

CHAPTER XXV-Continued.
It was six months later, blazing, blue
July day, when the gunboat Yorktown
lifted North Head, the northern portal of
the Golden Gate. Tom Fanshaw and his
father had gone to the bridge, but Philip
and Jeanne, the other two passengers,
remained. unmoved by the announcement,
seated as far aft as possible. the ensign,
limp in the following breeze, huttering
just over their heads.
The great foe which for so many
months had held the Aurora fast i'm
prisoned had broken up under the unre-
lenting warmth of the June sun and had
set the ship free at last, to plod her slow
way southwark. True to old Mr.. Fan
shaw's predictions. she had weathered
the arctic winter and the grip of the arc
tic ice in safety. The wounded survivors
of the Walrus party had died and one Of
their own crew. Otherwise. the sun and
the open water found them as we'll as
they had left them-better off, II one is
to take an account or the gold-the in
credible amount Of gold which they had
Fanshaw's reckoning, belonged to jeanne
was the fruit of her fathers discovery
Some time, perhaps, they would realize
the Importance of 1t. but there upon the
aTcllC sea lney were lar enough away
from the world and its standards to make
| it seem trivial. almost unreal. If they
had had to tighten the ship they would
have pitched it over first.
| The Aurora was doing very we'll for
| her, grinding out eight knots an hour,
which was about the best she was capa-
BILE of, when. off ST. Lawrence Island,
| She sighted the cleaning white man-of-
| war, with the Stars and Stripes snap
ping at her rail. At that sight old Mr..
i q G 11O q INN too md ~
became irresistible when he learned that
| she was bound for San Francisco, as they
were.
What international consideration had
| taken her into those waters is no con-
| Germ of ours. Her business was done and
she was homeward bound. as her long
pennant. streaming out astern, attested.
| So the Aurora hailed her. Mr.. Fanshaw
went on board and when he returned it
was with the astonished captains invi-
| tation to himself and the others in his
party, Jeanne, Philip and Tom, to go
| back to San Francisco in the gunboat.
They left the Aurora to follow along at
| her own gait, in Capt. Warmers charge
left gold and all-taking with them only
some civilized clothes and two precious
| articles which Jeanne would not leave be-
| hind-her fathers journal, in its rosewood
| box, and Cayleys wings.
AS for the civilized clothes, when the
two lovers, SO equipped, encountered each
other for the first time in the wardroom
of the man-of-war. just before their first
dinner on board of her, they had gazed
at each other almost incredulously. Now,
as they sat here on deck. the last golden
hours Of that golden voyage slipping
away, Philip reverted to that moment to
his feeling at first sight of her.
Clothes aren't mere externals. They
really strike in little way, at least. 1t
was not just that you looked different
that night in the wardroom, you were
different. little-really not quite the
same person who walked back beside me
across the ice to the Aurora"
do you like her-this new person.
Jeanne asked She drawled over the
question a little, as If her lips careSSed
it, in the speaking. Cayley laughed like
a boy.
Il even like being a little afraid of
her" he said.
They had been talking lazily, as 1t had
been their wont to do lately. There was
certain luxury in taking their happi-
ness for granted-in slipping along the
surface of life for a while and evading
the emotional deeps in themselves. which
they knew were there. That was natural
after the series of tremendous expert
provided them with They seldom spoke
Of that time. 1t was with difficulty that
Tom and his father could get any &C
count of it.
When Jeanne went on speaking now it
was in the same tone of lazy enjoyment
which she had employed before.
I'm afraid of myself" she said, land
that isn't joke. I've been in terror all
the voyage for fear I'd do something
dreadful-stretch out at full length on
the deck after dinner. or something of
that sort. In a long skirt feel as l re-
member l used to when I was about ten
years old and l was allowed to dress up
in my mothers clothes. And Philip, now
the world am afraid Of it, really afraid
afraid I'll hate it. the people, don't
mean friends. just people-and being po
lite and behaving respectfully. and hav-
ing nothing really particular to do" AS
she finished her voice had deeper note
in it, and, looking quickly up at her,
Philip saw that she was in earnest.
Il suppose we shall feel that he said.
but we can come back gradually. We
can build q bungalow somewhere up
on mountain side, where we can be
quite by ourselves-with no servants or
anything. l mean-and then we can take
humanity in smah doses, little at a
| time
"You will have your WINGS" she sup
plemented, land you can go towering up,
| far up in the sunshine. to where the air
| is as cold as that you flew down through
| the night you first came to me-so high
| that the world will look deserted, even
! though it isn't-and you can believe it
empty. just as once it was. Only-only-
/ then you'll have to come back to me-"
She saw he meant to speak, but she fore
Stdlleu him. PnlHp, haven't you little
| fear all of your own? Won't you wish
that you could fly unhampered? 1 don't
mean always, but sometimes Won't you
| regret the days when the world was real
| ly empty of me and everybody else-re-
greet that night when you came flashing
| down upon the ice-fioe beside me?''
| This time she would have let him an
| swer her, but they were interrupted just
| then by football close by on the deck
and, looking up they saw one of the
junior officers standing close beside them.
| He was dark-haired. dark-eyed, good
| looking youngster, whose frank alteration
| of Jeanne ever since they had come
| aboard had amused the Fanshaws and
| secretly pleased and touched Philip. al
| though he pretended to be amused, too.
! They both rose and lounged back
| against the rail as he came up.
UGIad to he ri, Col