Gilpin observer., 1911-04-13

When, after a period of tantaliZing
twilight, the sun again came fairly
over the horizon, they besought their
commander, with a savage sort of
eagerness from which he might have
augured i'll. that he take them at
once to the ledge. They had caught
sight of 1t from a distance, even as
Cayley had done. hung in the air
above the valley, and had run reck-
lessly on ahead of their leader. When
he came up to them, he found them
dangerously excited, the man Roscoe
fairly dazed and drunken with it.
Finally Fielding had left them to
their own devices. and came away
with his two companions. And until
the light of that short day had begun
to fail, they-the Walrus people
stayed, gloating over this strangely
useless treasure.
For three days after that the man
Roscoe never spoke word On the
fourth day, when the little party as
sembled for their midday meal, the II
men of the Walrus were the only
ones to answer the summons. Cap
tain Fielding and his two companions
had disappeared.
Captain Planck could not recall that
meal now without shuddering, for
there at the foot of the table, oppo-
site to him, had sat the man Roscoe,
with murder written plain in every
line Of his face. He had looked a
beast. rather than a man, that day.
The sated blood lust in his eyes made
them positively terrifying, SO that the
others shrank away from him. He
had seemed not to notice 1t, at least
not to take offense at It. He was in
hilarious spirits for the first time
since they had known him; seemed
really to try to be good companion.
Captain Planck abdicated his lead
ership that DAY. He was perfectly
conscious of the fact. He lad known
that to retain the leadership he must
take that murderer out and execute
him. He knew that II he did not do
this, the murderer. not he, would here
after command the party, and that
unless he himself yielded the prompt
est obedience of any, he would follow
the luckless trio whom they were
never to see again.
From that day to this there had
been no more murders. Roscoe had
ruled them with a decision and a
turbulence which put anything like
insubordination out of the question.
He had been obeyed better than Cap
tain Planck ever had been. He had
worked them f1ercely all those four
years, cutting. everlastingly, at that
wonderful. exhautless golden ledge,
beating the friable ore out of 1t with
heavy mauls. then, laboriously. con-
veying the great rude slabs of pure
metal on rough sledges over the per-
petual ice of the glacier to a cave
near the shore, where they had de-
posted 1t. There were literally tons
of it hidden there when the smoke
from the yachts funnel was first seen
on the horizon.
The moment the news of the ap-
preaching steamer was reported to
Roscoe. he had entered upon what
seemed to his followers a thoroughly
irrational and inexplicable line of ac-
ton. He had ordered them, first, to
remove all signs of recent habitation
from the hut to the cave where their
gold was concealed: then. to cover the
cave mouth with heap of boulders,
to secure it against discovery.
Long before the strongest glass on
the ship could have made out their
moving figures. he took the whole
party back to the hills in hiding. He
had kept them from answering. the
halls and the gun-fire from the yacht
by the sheer weight of his authority,
without vouchsafing word of expla-
nation
The next day they had seen the
searching party come ashore. and with
their knowledge of the lay of the
land found 1t perfectly easy to evade
observation. though nothing but the
strong habit OF obedience kept them
from counting it.
Then, along in the afternoon, had
happened what seemed to them the
strangest thing of all. They had seen
solitary straggler from the search
ing party coming along across the
ice. He could not see them. 1t would
have been perfectly easy to evade
him. but Roscoe now ordered them
to go down to him and tell him who
they were. and to offer to escort him
along the trail down the glacier. And
at a certain point they were to lag
behind and let him go on alone. That
was all any of them knew OF their
leaders plans. till they saw the flying
dart and the smudge OF crimson on
the snow.
Now. at last. came Planck to the
leader, asking the reason why. But
his mission. as It appeared. had not
prospered.
no BE CoNTINuEp1