Putnam patriot., 1910-10-07
AN ARCTIC KNIGHT Story of an Exploring
 Party By EDWIN B. ERHART Copyright. ts1a. ey Asneqcaa Press
 Association

ArterS ceased biting his nails aud rested q long. lean chin in the hollows of his hands.
 T could tell you something thai would surprise you" be said. gaziG.s. al me across the table.
 Staresisat him expectantiy.
 4Whats" l Ronosyiia bIed.
 Arters gioomed mediratively. but showed no disposition to answer.
 The girl on the cot dung pitifuily thin arm over her head and moaned and murmured in her sleep
 Well. what ys reiterated sharply The long trip that day across the mo- notonous. never ending white plaia had done little toward improving my temper
 Arters arose to his great height. squared his broad shoulders and tip toed around the table
 'l am Ged-. he whispered in my ear
 saw that l had to do with a mad man.
 This is a strange world" continued Arfers. ruminant note in his voice Here we are come. you and 1. to this forsaken country in quest for lost woman explorer and all for a miser- able piftsnee doled out to us by Chi- cago newspaper" He brushed an i'm patient hand across his eyes. My memory isn't all that it should be" :" h. ssy .hs bered who was-am-and then this trip would have been unnecessary"
 Arters east a fartive glance toward the cot in the dim corner '.Is she an angel" he murmured queruleusly. "or Ruth Proctor. the girl we came search ing for? l can't seem to remember somehow.
 Both I answered. and my com panion was satisfied
 It seemed years since the Meteor had assigned us. staff reporters at the time. to the hazardous task of finding Ruth Proctor. the intrepid girl ex- plorer. who had set out two years be- fore to tibd the north pole and was now supposed to be somewhere in the vicinity of the ninetieth degree
 The Meteor is not one to stint its embassies. We. the words of Arters to the contrary. fairly reveled in mon ey. and the essentials of the trip were all forthcoming and were of the best Our boat. the Lost Hope. was marvel of technical construction. made for this very purpose and for our enter prising journal.
 Miss Proctor. the young society wo- man who had forsworn New York and the callow amusements of her set to do something really worth while had been conspicuous in the limelight on the eve of her departure and for twelve months thereafter. Now if she was referred to at all in the papers formerly enthusing over her nerve and daring she was given no more than a passing paragraph. Her fame bade fair to be niehed with that of her H. lustrious predecessor. Andre. the fame of-failure.
 But the Meteor kept an impatient eye northward. and when the relief expedition came home without her Ar iers and l were given the word to go in search of the girl.
 Arters was the Benjamin J. Arters of much mad scrambling on the part of ambitious dailies that lusted for his efficient services. He was writer keen of brain and pen and one of the highest salaried fact getters in the world of smudge and cheap paper No college degree journalist was Ar ters. but reporter.
 Smith. the managing editor. had said to me. You are to accompany Ar ters''-not on account of my stellar position on the staff. understand. but because l had been one of the adven- turers in that first rush to the Yukon and knew my north
 Our ship had rare good luck. the Ice drift allowing us at the last to come within a quarter mile of the silent Maid of Orleans. Ruth Proctor's boat Of course if was deserted. The log book was gone We had no way of telling whether the crew had returned 10 the trail after the original first rush t0W3fu tHF 3ptt UT t'tt tshcu oi eV's
 With four Eskimos. dogs and siedges we began the tail of our trip. Our route in all probability was the same as that of Ruth Proctor's party
 Eskimos are peculiar humans. Our men seemed perfectly contented. but one morning We crnwled out of our sleeping bags to find them gone. They had taken with them our fastest dogs. two sledges and a large supply Of our provisions. Wisely we decided not to pursue.
 Fate must have planned our expedi- ion with an eye for the meiodra- matic. At any rate. when we found she fur clad maid explorer she was alone. seemingly deserted by every body and half crazed and sick She had food. but in order to make this last she had been slowly starving her self to death She was moving toward the pole. fell in love with her straightway. and l guess Arters did
 Ruth Proctor was . witching thing despite her ugly. shape destroying skins. and the hunger and snow fever had made her dainty face but that much more pathefically beautiful De spite her stern resolve to nnd the pole and the self reliance of her. she was | most feminine person-
 We turned back Ths giri. DOW that the incentive for keeptng up vas par tially removed. grew seriously ilL and after nine days on the back track we came across . deserted shanty that had been . vantage point on our pole