Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-05-11

sea the bottle containing the chart Of
the coast and the account Of his
plight, together with the curse which
the relief ship must take, should such
a relief ship be sent out, to have any
hope at all Of reaching them.
Il suppose" his narrative for this
day concluded, there is hardly one
chance in ten thousand that my mes
sage will ever be picked up, and GER
tainly not one in a million that it will
be found In time to bring IN effective
relief. However, 1t helps to keep the
others cheerful, and that Is the main
At the close of the days entry was
a single line which contracted her
heart with a sharp spasm of pain.
This is Jeanne's birthday" 1t said.
She resumed her reading presently,
and came to the point where the Wal
rus people entered into the narrative;
their plight, their rescue and their
welcome by the three men, who by
now were the only survivors Of the
original expedition.
She was reading faster now, with
none Of those little meditative pauses
that had marked her progress through
the earlier pages of the journal, for
the sinister termination of the nara
tive began to foreshadow itself dark
ly, from the moment-the first mo-
ment Of the appearance of the Walrus
people on the scene. Her fathers de-
s~cription Of the man Roscoe, of the
expression that had been plain to read
in his face as he had listened to the
account of the gold-bearing ledge
across the glacier, gave her a shudder-
ing premonition; apparently, her ia
Their had experienced the same feeling
himself, Day after day Roscoe's name
appeared, always accompanied by
some little phase Of misgiving.
For Just one day this dread seemed
to have been lifted from Captain Field.
ing's spirit. That was the day the sun
came back to them, putting an end tc
their long arctic night. 1T has been
a hard winter" he wrote, "and l an
glad it is over. The hardest thing
about 1t has been our sleeplessness
from which we have all suffered. To
day we have enjoyed a change, having
taken a walk along the beach. Eve1
Roscoe seems humanized a little by
return Of the frank sunshine, and may
perhaps, develop into a tolerable com
panion. Tomorrow l have promised
=. If 1t is fine, to guide them across thu
|. glacier to the gold ledge"
II was the next to the last entry IL
the journal. She turned the page
paled and pressed her lips tight to
? gether when the array Of blank page
/ before her told her that she hat
reached the end. Then she read tn,
: last words her father had eyer writ
! ten.
! Took the Walrus people to tn
ledge today. Have no heart to de
q scribe the scene that they enacte
there. The man Roscoe certainl
means to kill me. If 1t were not 70
my conviction that the danger fror
him is largely personal to myself, tina
he means me and no other, probably
[ for his victim, l think l should hav
him shot as a measure Of justiflabl
q prevention. He is not a man, but
great sinister brute-literally siniste,
d for he is left-handed. I shall wal
warily, and hope the crisis may 500
4 be over" Evidently that part of hi
q wish had come true.
The book slipped out of the girl
hands, and she sat, with horror-widel
ed eyes, staring at the candle, until
guttered and went out. Slowly, tn
outside world began to take It's plaC
again around her. She knew that sh
was shivering, h%alf-frozen, that the ic
wind was whining through the crack
in her rude shelter.
She thought she heard some on
moving about outside, and thi
thought brought her quickly to he
feet. She made her way to the doc
of the hut, called out; waited a breat,
less instant-and cried aloud in su,
den terror.