Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-04-13
CHAPTER II.-contlnued.

STIAT EN- Hr-ConClnuod
Cayley could not contradict her,
and he saw there was little need of
trying to do so. She had spoken sim
ply, and very gravely, but II was evil
dent the years had MOI taken the sting
out of her grief.
He told you where he was?" he
asked.
"Oh, quite exactly" she told him;
he gave us latitude and longitude,
and mapped the coast-line. SO you
were wrong, you see, in what you said
about photographers. And he gave us
the route by which with reasonable
fortune, we might find open water.
We had good fortune and we got here
safely, but, Of course, we were too
late. The hut on the shore there Is
deserted. We have seen no signs Of
life at all. The men have gone ashore
to search, and there Is to be a gun-fire
If they find anyone alive. But they
have been out all day and there has
been no sound. You will understand,
think, though, why did not want to
sleep tonight In my cabin in the
yacht; why the ice and the dome Of
stars seemed better"
Yes" he said, II understand"
Presently, after a moments musing,
he added, What seems strange to me,
incomprehensible altogether, is, that
men like your father, and so many
others, should risk and lose their lives
trying to reach the pole"
you can't understand that" she
questioned surprised, you, a man
with wings?"
Il suppose it's because Of the
wings" he answered her. 81 slept
there once, early this summer-slept
and rested, and ate a meal"
There" she echoed incredulously
Where do you mean?"
AT the pole, or within a half degree
of it won't guarantee my lnstru
ments, nor my hit-and-miss observa
lions any more accurately than that
and it seemed a poor place to risl
ones life trying to reach. Just the
ice-pack-the eternal ice-pack; moth
ing but that" Then his eyes lighted
a little. But l should like to go there
some time, in the winter-should like
to fly straight ahead, for hours ant
hours, through the long dark, until
could see the North Star squared.
above my head in the zenith, the cen
ter of all the universe. That woult
be a sight worth having, l shout
think. Some day, perhaps, | shall tr,
for it. And then one could go straigh
on across-a week or ten days woul'
do it all-from Dawson City, say, t
st. Petersburg"
Dawson City to St. Petersburg!
she repeated; "only a creature 0
wings could put those two cities /
the same sentence, even in imagine
ton. And even with you 1t must b
imaginary. You couldn't do 1t, reall
could you?"
Yes" he said; II could do it"
You're t~lreless, them" she asked
you would go on flying, flying, will
out rest. for a week.
~ don't fly" he told her, "or hardl
at all. The birds don't fly, not thes
great sea birds that live on the winl
They sail; so do l."
But, then, don't you have to g
with the wind?"
you've sailed a boat, haven't youI
he asked by way of answer. You pl
I'M a sail to catch the breeze, an
then you make it force your boat rigf
up into it; make your boat go again'
the wind, by the force of the win
itself. That was regarded as a mi
acle once when men first did it."
"Of course" she admitted, but yc
do that by lacking"
oThat's the way l do it-by tackin
and the force of gravity is my heel"
How long have you lived iii
this?" she asked abruptly.
Really lived? only three mohti
or So. l spent the better part Of fly
Years learning to fly"
And you have flown all over Il
world?'
"All over this most deserted patC
of It,"
There was another silence. The
she said; And what a contempt "
must have for us-for us, poor win
loss creatures, who cannot cross a
tle assure in a rock or a bit OF OPT
water without such toilsome labC
Yes. that must be the feeling-co
+emnt. It could hardly be pity"
IF that's true" he rejoined quick
ITS only poetic Justice. I've on
achieved toward the world the feelil
which the world held for me-"
The words were spoken harsh
abruptly, as if his memory had ju
tasted something intolerably pltt'
The manner of the words, no lie
tban the sense of them startled HI
and she checked a movement to tn
and look into his face. Instead s
tried to recall it as 1t had look
when she had first stood CONFRONT
him before the twilight had faded