The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-09-15
Something
On This



ss when 1t did fall. II cut his life clean
4 across: so that when he thought back
10 that time now, Il seemed 10 him
that the Lieutenant Cayley Of the
4 United States Army had died over
\ there ID the Philippines. and that he.
the man who was now soaring in those
& great circles through the Arctic sky.
WAS chance inheritor OF his name
and OF his memory.
sSS He had set out enc day at the head
Sef 4 small scouting party, the best
I liked man in the regiment. secure in
The respect. in the almost fatheriy re-
Rard. Of his colonel. proudly conscious
d OF the almost idolatrous admiration of
d his men and OF the younger officers.
sIIe had gone out believing that no one
3 serer had a truer friend than he pos
\ nj West Point, his fellow -officer In the
regiment the confidant OF all his hopes
AnH Ideals
He had come buck. after q fort
nights absence, to find his name
Hn1eared with disgrace. himself jndg-
I'd and condemned, unheard, in the
opinion of the mess And that was
mot the worst Of IT, The same blow
which had deprived him of the re-
4 gard or the only people in the world
wi1o nsattered to him. destroyed. also,
root and branch. his affection for the
one man of whom he had made an In
fisnats- The onl. feeling that II would
4 be possible for him to entertain for
4 Perry Hunter again must be half
4 ritying, half -incredulous contempt.
L And IL that was his feeling for the
4 1aan he had trusted most and loved
a the most deeply, what must II he for
A The rest or Humankind What did Il
a1atter what they thought of him or
What they did to him? All he wanted
NAf human society was to escape from
He fell to wondering. as he hung
n el1Spefded. over that rosy expanse ot
Edeecy fog. whether were the thing to
& 40 over again, he would act as he had
|ncted five years ago: whether he would
|xsuntent himself with a single disdain-
#8nl denial of the monstrous thing they
Eharged him with. whether he would
Efeeign again. under fire. and go away,
Ieasing his furnished name for the
x3AwS 10 peck at.
Heretofore he had always answered
xhat question with fierce affirmative.
To-day 1t left him wondering. Had
Il ne stayed, had he paid the price that
would have been necessary to clear
B himself. he would never have found
his wings, SO much was clear. He
would never have spent those four
Years In the wilderness, working, ex-
1 perimenting, taking his life III his
4 hands, day after day. while ne mas
tered the art that no man had ever
u mastered before.
He had set himself this task be-
cause III was the only one he knew
I shat did not involve contact with his
4 feilow -beiugs. He must have some
thing that he could work at alone
ss Work and solitude were two things
v That he had felt an overnlastering
II craving for. And the possibility he
6 had faced with a light heart every
mornIng--the possibility of n sudden
and viiient death before night---had
been no more TO him than an agree
4 Able spice to the days work.
II was not until he had actually
Il leArned TO fly. had literally shaken the
dust or earth from his feet and taken
No the sky as his abode, that his wound
IsAa1aE healed, The three months that he
B had spent In this upper Arctic air.
sM@wing for sixteen hours out OF TWEEN
y tv-f -four. had Gained him. put his
Il nerves in tune again: given him for
men and their affairs quiet indiffer-
s#&nce, In place Of the smartiug con-
tempt he had been hugEing to his
4 breast before. Three months ago, at
Iight OF those little human dots cross
y 1ng the glacire, he would have wheeled
asnloft and gone sailing away. Even q
month ago he would hardly have hung.
S;noAring there. above the fog, waiting
for II 10 lift again the veil OF mystery
which ii had drawn across the tragic
4 Bcene he had just witnessed.
The month was August, and the long
Arctic day had already begun to know
Il M diurnal twilight. fortnight ago
the sun had dipped, for the first time,
below the horizon BY now there were
-four or FIVE hours, out of every twenty
& four. that would pass for night.
The sun set while he hung there in
gsx1e air. and as it did so, with a new
niafs of the breeze the fog rolled
s1tgeff mp into a great violet colored
u cloud, leaving the earth, the ice. the
4eA unveiled below him. And there.
An the open water of the little bay,
\ he saw ship, and on the shore IA cins-
II nor OF rue huts.
II struck him, even from the height
ssnt which he soarded, that the ship,
N Red TO an ice foe in the shelter of
4 4he great nea9land. did not look like
IL whaier. nor like the sort of craft
n rhich an Arctic explorer would have
1 aciected for his purposes. 1t had more
4 4hA trim slnartness of yacht.
4 They were probably all asleep down
n xhAre. he reflected. 1t was nearly mid
n night and he saw no signs OF life any
me- r. a