Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-08-09
She lay still and waited.

She lay still and waited.
At last his face cleared. What gave
you that faith of yours in me?" he
questioned abruptly. About the muir
dered man; how could you be sure,
without any proof, that I hadn't done
it?"
"Why-I suppose it was your wings"
she said thoughtfully. What you told
me, or, rather. what you let me see OF
the soul OF a man who could live In the
sky as you do.-Its such a crawling
thing to do-to take a mans life out OF
revenge. One who lives I'D above the
world couldn't stoop to do it-any more
than an angel could"
He pondered her words In silence for
a while. You're right" he said at
last-"partly right. I didn't want re-
venge-I wouldn't have stopped TO take
It If I had. And, yet-well, I didn't
stoop to save him, either, and 1 might
have done that; at least II would have
come about that way, II I hadn't
checked my human instinct TO go down
among them; hadn't stayed aloft too
long, watching them as though they
were a picture"
He went back to the foot OF the bunk
and picked up the big morocco-bound
book which he had laid down. THAT
narrative has humbled me some way"
he said. you were quite right. IT has
made me retract the thing 1 said, In my
ignorance, about the men who risk and
lose their lives trying to reach the Pole.
Whatever his of success OF
failure was-the man who lived that
.story-setttng 1t down on these pages
as he lived twas worth-was worth a
whole paradise of angels. You were
right, too, though I didn't know you
were until you said 1t, in telling me that
! had a contempt for the world. l did
have. I betrayed II this morning, there
on the deck of the yacht, with the
Ignorance and vehemence Of a school
boy. But this Journal of you fathers,
and ~your-your beautiful faith in me
have shown me what base metal IT was
made Of"
He pulled himself up sharply there
and looked at his watch. ut will be
daylight In two hours now" he said.
when 1t comes we'll signal to the
yacht, and they'll SEND for you and take
you away-you and this precious find
you've made. In the meantime, you
must go to sleep. You hardly slept at
all while I was reading"
81 hardly dare go TO sleep-not really
deer asleep. II I did IN afraid you'd
turn out to be all a dream. and I'd find
myself back IN my stateroom OF the
yacht" She was speaking half in
mockery. but there was an undertone
of seriousness in her voice. Think how
unlikely 1t is that all this can have hap
pened,' she went on. You said this
morning you were going to leave US.
and I watched you &c. How can 1t be
anything but a dream that you were
hanging aloft there in the sky. above
the fog. ready to como plunging down
when I cried out for help?"
81 told you once" he said, not very
steadily, that one OF us might be
dreaming, but that one was not you.
you win promise, them" she asked
that i'll go to sleep I'll wake up here
and not on the yacht, and that you
won't have Disappeared"
ST promise" he said seriously.
He seated himself once more at her
feet. switched off the fading light from
the ~bull's-eye and drew the sleeves of
her coat across his shoulders. Good
night" he said.
She answered drowsily.
He had meant to indulge in the
luxury of a doze himself. for he had
not slept since the first light of the
day before. and then for only W or
three hours. But the train of thought
which her last words had set going in
his mind were quite enough to Danish
sleep.
How nearly those wings OF his had
betrayed him again. How narrowly
had he missed throwing away this sec
ond opportunity.
When he had taken wing from the
ice foe that morning 1t had been with
the perfectly definite intention of max
ing the long, straight flight of 900
miles to Point Barrow. He remem-
bered now how he had phrased the