Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-10
CHAPTER XIII.
In the Pilot House,
Copyright. 1910.
By the Century Company

olhei people Oh the w alruS had never no.
ticed the ice chimney. nor suspected the
existence of the pilot house upon the
clif-head Also, he had followed correct
ly the track of Roscoe's mind in the de-
ductlon that the two latest castaways
upon this land-that is. Philip and Jeanne
must have persisted in the great storm
which began on the night when he fired
the hut, and continued for SO many
weeks that he. like them, lost all trace
of the reckoning.
During the storm he had lived in the
cave, much as Philip and Jeanne had
lived in the pilot house on the cliff; he
had, that is to say. in some purely au-
tomato fashion. kept on existing. The
mere momentum of mature mans vi
tally makes it hard for him to die. But
when the storm abated and miIder wealth
er came he bestirred himself, as Cay.ey
did, and set about digging tunnel of
his own through the great drift which
had blocked the entrance to his cave.
On the whole the long weeks he had
been alternating. for that is what his
state amounted to, had had a beneficial
erect upon him. He was not only sane
again. but had ceased altogether to be
self-conscious about his state of mind.
That period of weeks when he had
ghost of murdered man and an old
rosewood box, and what he had taken to
be an avenging angel from heaven. had
no more connection with his present self
than the half-remembered delirium of
man who has once been sick.
The next time the moon came up after
he had completed the tunnel from the
cave, he set out down the beach toward
the ruins of the hut.
1t was not mere curiosity which at
tr4ctpd him lurl-iup foor hut
simply the hope of making some salvage
from the Wreckage of the hut or pos
sibly, from the bodies of his two vic
tins. in case he was lucky enough to find
them there. He had no doubt at all that
they were dead.
His pleasure over the quantity and con-
dition of the stores he found in the ice
cave compensated for his disappointment
over not finding the bodies of his two
latest victims.
Evidently they had not even attempted
to use such shelter as the ice chamber
afforded. for 1t showed no marks of hui
man habitation at all. They had prob
ably wandered outside and died in one
of the nearby drifts. Perhaps he would
find them some day. For the present
however. the stores occupied his whole
attention.
Very methodically he set to work.
carrying them off to his own cave work
ing without fatigue and without intermis-
sion-working so long as the moonlight
lasted.
He was just setting out with his last
load when. glancing skyward to see how
long the light would hold he caught a
glimpse of CavIey on the wing The
sight occasioned him no return-not even
momentary-of the old terror. He cursed
little because he had not his rifle with
MN; the sky-man. soaring slowly and
not very high. presented mark he
could almost certainly have hit.
1t was surprising, of course. to see him
alive. but Roscoe. in his present state.
never thought of looking to supernatural
means to account for the fact. Indeed
he was hardly more than moment in
experimenting the true explanation
There might we'll be. he supposed. up
somewhere in the face of the cliff cave
or shelter. of which he knew nothing. and
easily accessible to any one who hap
pened to possess flying machine
Skirting the cliff and keeping well in
its shadow, he made his way with his
last load back to his cave. Here he
spent a few minutes cleaning his rifle
making sure that the mechanism Of the
breech was working perfectly. and fill
ing its magazine full of cartridges
The moon was just setting, but the
sky was still bright enough to give him
good hope of making out Cayley's
winged figure against it.
He did not follow the old track down
the beach. but made straight out over
the rough masses of ice which covered
thS DdS. II was udEh enough 10 90 away
with the danger that the sky-man might
see him first.
He was in better humor than he had
been at any time since the coming of the
Aurora. He was out hunting. and con-
fidently expected to succeed in hageing
his prey. OF. those human passions which
incite men to do murder he felt for the
moment, none whatever. He expected a
certain pleasure in getting the winged
man sauarely on the sight of his rifle
n 11ryp
sky with one clean shot.
He expected he would come. He was
almost certain to return to his shelter.
wherever it was. before the last of the
light had faded from the sky
Roscoe squatted down in the lee of the
great hummock of ice, surveyed the
heavens with keen practiced eyes.
munched on strip Of dried walrus meat
which he had brought with him and wait
ed very contentedly
He had not long to wait. Long before
the moon-twilight had gone out of the
sky he saw in it. silhouetted against it,
the sight from which he had once fled
with such mad terror-the broad expanse
of the skyman'S wings
He was coming along almost directly
above the spot where Roscoe waited and
within easy range. Roscoe had raised
his rifle and was sighting deliberately
along the barrel before the idea occurred
to him which caused him to lower it
again rather suddenly. and swear at HIM
self little under his breath, as a man
will who has nearly made a bad mis-
take.
What a fool he would have been. to be
sure. If he had killed the sky-man before
learning from him the location of this
unknown shelter of his; for if the man
was living there was a pretty good
chance that the woman was too There
would be plenty of chances to kill the
man after he had discovered the loca-
ton of their nesting place.
SO. instead OF firing. he scrambled ND
to the top of the nearest ice hunnnock
and from there watched Cayley's fight
to his landing place.
He laughed aloud when he saw that it
was not in the side of the cliff. as he
had feared but quite at the crest of it
could climb a bit as to one with wings.
He did not move from his attitude of
strained attention on the summit of IT.
tie ice hill until he saw faint glow of
golden light diffusing itself from the
mouth of the tunnel that led to the plot
house. Then, with that queer, shutting
gait of his, which was neither walk nor
run. he began making his way inshore
over the ice toward the foot of the cliff
Cayley's tunnel was not at right an
giles to the crest. but bore off diaeonally
westward. Roscoe had noted this fact.
and he figured it out that from the top
of the promontory, which formed the
western boundary of their strip of beach.
he should be able to command a view
straight into the tunnel Also. there was
at this point a precipitous trail I'D the
cliff. No one but Roscoe would have
called ii a trail. but that was the way it
existed in his mind
He had not climbed it since the day
when the sight of Philip coming dou,p