The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-11
The Sky Man

a.
that game. No; the time to look out for
them Is when were outside the hut, out
to do-bringing in firewood. looking for
more game. and so on"
,,,.: Shall we have to do that? Can't we
Just stay in here, safer
THE daylight will answer that ques-
The most Of it; A month from now
prisoners of ourselves until The winter
though, he added thoughtfuily after a
little silence, "one thing that L must do
sheds whore they kept their stores. They
would furnish cover--as good cover
Ssr as any enemy mem could ask for They him
How long do you suppose IL will last?'
she asked. in q voice that shook little.
,,i:b MoT y, long can 1t last? How long can we
able TO surprise us2' She cIasped her
hands, with shndder: and gr!pped them
1T isr
What I don't understand" said Cay
already. Why have they waited until we
are fortified and secure? Why didn't
they attack us yesterday morning when
| they would have found us helpless?"
"Or yesterday afternoon she supple
mentcd. down the beach around the
promontory' then, when we know he must
| have been so near. That's rather hor-
rIble all by itself. Just the fact that he
didn't"
What the girl said was perfectly true.
] Cayley felt it himself as sharply as She
| did. Aside from that one element in 1t,
| their situation, though terrible, was real
was the sort of situation that suffi-
| ciently determined courage and a sUf-
| hcicntly alert waliness could cope with.
But their immunity from attack during
| all those hours when the enemy must
have been close at hand, and when op-
| portunitles for attack had been so plenu-
full had something uncanny about IT., and
gave to this terrible adventure OF theirs
something of the quality of horror.
peqfecy d valid rayeX Of mus M
and 1T may be one that we can discover
for ourselves. II we set about it,"
So. as sanely and as logically as pos
sible. dismissing as far as they could the
! nameless dreadful terror that surrounded
| the situation, they began TO reconstruct
the story OF the member. or members Of
aboard the Aurora when the gale drove
her out 10 sea.
we both slept late that morning"
we came out of the hut and first looked
seaward, ] expected at that time TO ind
part OF the Walrus party camped near
by. / opened the hut door cautiously
on that account, and my reason for as
| suming that none of them was left here,
was the idea that they'd have been here
on the beach near the hut II they'd been
anywhere, Well, we know now that that
assumption was wrong. There was some
one here any way. It's probable that
! with the very first return Of the light he
| discovered the fact that the Aurora had
! been blown out 10 sea. hours before We
| did.
| "Yet no one came near the hut all day.
and take that TO mean that they or he.
avoided II. II would have peen an obvi-
Gus place 70 come. It's hard to see why
they avoided II. unless because they knew
| that We were here. If they knew, they
| certainly had plenty OF opportunities to
attack us. because we were often sepa-
| rated that day. I was In the hut and
you were out on the beach gathering fire.
| wood"
Surely" said Jeanne ''he couldn't
have hoped for better opportunity to
| attack me than he had when ! was alone
| there in the twilight before you came
flying down out of the sky: and you said
he was quite near Why do you suppose
he didn't? Why do you suppose he
waited?"
| Cayley. II was helpless for a minute
while 7 was getting clear Of my planes.
Yes. that was his chance. and yet he
waited After we had gone, he apparent
| ly scaled the cliff for his tracks led right
| up 10 II. and then disappeared. It's not
quite so precipltously steep there as It
is here. but | would hardly have dreamed
! that a human being could climb it
thoughtful silence. simply afraid. But
81 he's the man we think he Is. it
superstiuous in some way. 1t wouldn't
be wonderful II he felt that, after the
two glimpses he had OF you. / renem-
Der how / felt at first when YOU alighted
! on the foe beside me. He's seen you
twice, remember. The first time at night
In the fog; the second time in broad day.
with the sun on your wings. No IL isn't
strange II he thinks Of you. not as man
| n terrible angel
keeping guard over me. When 7 go very
long without seeing you. or when ] see
you In flight. get to thinking Of you IN
'If that's the way he thinks OF me"
said Cayley. well try not to disabuse
him a belief like that is an Item on otr
| side OF the ledger, certainly. And we
haven't any such balance in our favor
that We can afford to throw an edvan-
tage away, even a small one.
! Really the balance of advantage be-
tween them and their enemy was amaz-
ingIy even. They had the hut, the enemy
the stores. They had Captain Fielding s
practical knowledge OF the country. They
were two. with but a single weapon be
tween them. Their enemy. for aught
they knew. might be one or a half a
dozen, and how armed, they did not
! know
Fortunately. no prophetic vision en-
abled them 10 anticipate on that first
evening. the length Of time that that pre-
carious life and death balance would
maintain itself. They had agreed Philip
and Jeanne. that the only thing TO do
was TO wait and 10 maintain an unwink-
ing vigilance, But both OF them thought
Of the duration Of this wait in terms of
hours. or at most days, Had they fore
seen that II would stretch Itself out into
weeks and months, they might we'll have
despaired.
There were two things that kept them
from succumbing 70 DESPAIR The first
was that they never really permitted
themselves 10 hope. 10 indulge in any
thoughts OF summers day when their
horizon should be cut by the spars and
tunnels OF a ship bringing relief. They
were simply going to live one day at n
time. For every day that they coult