The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-14
The Sky Man

mare; then With a long expiration OF
| breath he settled back again.
IL his wings had betrayed him once be
| fore, they had made their compensation
! In that moment when the girls cry hao
| come up TO him, through the fog. With
out them he could never have brought
| help.
She told him she had cried out TO him
| to him, Philip Cayley. And his heart
went racing madly now as the strange ad-
declaration OF faith that had gone with It,
Well, he had his reward All those lonely
that had made up the tale OF them; al
the heart hunger, for which he haC
sought an anaesthetic In the sky were
paid for now and made profitable lr
these hours he had had with her. anC
in the memory of them that he wouo
take away with him. II could be nothing
more than memory; that he knew ful
well; The girl had practically admitted as
much when she had urged him TO clear
his name OF the old disgrace that stained
He could not take her faith In him and
use 1t for cloak The world, as she hao
said, had 10 walk by sight. Unless hG
could convince those two ranshaws. for
instance, of his innocence of the old
charge, as the girl had convinced them
OF his innocence OF the later one-un-
less he could do that-why. with the com
ing of morning, with the coming ashore
OF boat from the yacht, he must say
good bye TO her, must let her go out
or his lie Tor always.
The yacht would sail away and he would
fly back TO Point Barrow. However Bit
ter that parting might be, he knew that
he would always have something of her
that he could kecp-the humanity which
her faith had given him. He hoped she
would let him tell her so when they should
stand on the beach there waiting for
the boat TO come ashore. lie would not
tell her any more than that He did not
mean that the parting should give her
pain-he wanted 10 bear all that himself;
But he hoped that just once she would
give him her hands again and let him kiss
them.
Warmed a little, comforted little with
R s2o ho fell aseep himself e
knew. at least, that he must have done
so, when, rousing with a start and SPRING
ing To his feet. he saw q ray OF sunshine
splashed golden upon the opposite wall
of the hut. it must have been light for
hours.
Very silently, very cautiously he un-
fore opening the outer door, he drew his;
revolver and spun its cylinder under
meath ,th his thumb mall nail If the repulsed
near by, II would be well to be cautious
before reconnoiLering.
He pulled the outer door a little way
open and glanced Slantwise up the beach.
The brilliant light dazzled him and made
Ii hard to sec, but apparently there was
no one there: Stepping outside. he turned
his gaze inland, along the foot OF the
cliff. His mind was entirely preoccupicd
with the danger OF a sudden rush of enc
mics from near at hand,
That is how it happened that. for quite
n minute after he opened the door and
stepped outside, he did not cast single
glance seaward. He did not look in that
direction. until he saw that Pcannc.
awakened by the daylight in the hut, was
standing in the doorway Her own eyes.
puzzled. incredulous. only half awake,
were gazing out to sea. The expression
he saw In her face made him turn, sud-
denly. and look.
The scene before his eyes was beautiful,
with that stupcndous beauty that only
the Arctic can attain. The harbor and
beyond it, far out to sea-clear to the
horizon. was filed with great plunging.
churning masses of ice, all drenched in
color by the low hanging Arctic sun
violet rose, pure golden-yellow and cmar-
aid green, and a white whose incan-
descence fairly stabbed the eye, And as
those great moving masses ground to-
gelher they flung, high into the air.
broad shimmering veilS OF rose-coored
spray.
OF the foe. which they had considered
stable the land itself. there was no
longer any sign. There was nothing there.
nothing at all to greet their eyes, to
seaward, but the savage beauty Of the
ice.
The yacht had diSappcared