The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-09-23

to9otner with some scraps OF food-aAl
spoke SO loud Of Roscoe and made such
q contrast with this bit Of jewelry that
Cayley's action in STOPPING to pick it
up was Automatio.
He held it in his hand q moment as
II he did not know quite what to do
with it. then put it in his pocket and
went out of the cave. Only during
the moment when 1t had first caught
his eye had 1t really commanded his
attention at all. BY the time he got
outside of the cave he had forgotten
it.
Two or three breaths of the clear
air outside of the cave were all he
needed to revive him, physically. But
to his surprise they did not suffice to
rid him of the feeling which he re-
garded as superstitious, namely, the
impulse to fly back to Jeanne as fast
as wing could carry him.
He had every reason to believe that
she was safe, he told himself. She
was armed with a heavy revolver. was
q good shot and had plenty of nerve.
She was In a place, the only avenue
OF access to which would give her
tremendous advantage over any In
vader. So that, even supposing the
worst-supposing that Roscoe's alb
sence were taken to mean that he had
gone to make an attack on the pilot
house. there could hardly be q doubt
that Jeanne would kill him.
His reasoning was all based ON tho
assumption that the pilot house was
inaccessible to any wingless creature
except by way Of tho ice chimney.
Even now. when his fear for the girl
was amounting to superstition of al
most irresistible intensity, 1t did not
occur to him to question that
He steadied himself Is best he could
and crouched down In the shelter Of
the big rock to await Roscoe's return.
He had hardly settled himself here
when he saw something that made
him shake his head impatiently, and
swear Q little. 1t was the winklng
glow Of an aurora borealis, of to the
north
Cayley gazed at the spectacle unwill.
ingly. but still he gased. And. some
how. though he fought tho feeling des-
perately, 1t began to assume q per-
sonal significance to hinl-a signifi-
canoe Of mockery. The whole sky was
quivering with vast, silent laughter.
Was It because he, with his fancied
cleverness and daring in finding Ros-
GOES lair and waiting for his return to
1t, was really doing precisely the thing
that Roscoe would have had him do?
Were those sky-witches laughing over
what was happening up at the pilot
house while he sat hero and waited?
No Intelligence, no sane power of
consecutive reasoning can resist this
sort of thing definitely, and at last
Cayley's power Of resistance cume to
an end.
He sprang to his feet, at. last, drip
ping with sweat. in spite of the cold.
caught up his bundled wings, unfurled
them and took the air with a rush.
Once he had jerked himself aloft to a
height little above the crest Of the
cliff, 1t was hardly more than mat
ter OF seconds before he came oppo-
site the dome-lihe mound of snow
which covered the pilot house.
There was no light shining out of
the tunnel entrance. But that was
as he had expected 1t to be. He made
1t out easily enough: and in another
moment had alighted there.
"Jeannel" he called
1t was not the exertion of flight, but
q sudden intolera Bile apprehension that
made him breathless. The word had
halted little in his throat. Exact
ly as he uttered 1t he saw down the
tunnel, and in the pilot house itself,
tiny spark Of fire, and heard the
click Of steel against flint.
What the spark illuminated were
the fingers of a gigantic, hairy hand.
"Jeanne!" he called again, and now
his voice came clear enough. wait q
minute and I'll make q light for you"