The Mena weekly star., 1911-04-20

I
 derous lust four years ago-of that, and of the more terrible apparition he had seen coming down out of the sky. he thought, or tried to think nothing at all. It was only nightmare. only a delusion, natural enough when one considered all the circumstances.
 When the fog lifted with the ap. proach of dawn, he discovered what Philip and Jeanne did not become aware of until several hours later, that the Aurora had drifted out to sea in the gale The clean line of the hori- zon was broken by nothing but the plunging masses of the ice. There was just one chance, he thought that she might still be comparatively near at hand. Southward and eastward the horizon was unbroken, but the jutting mass of the promontory to the west cut off his view in that direction It was possible that the gale which had destroyed the foe that formed the harbor, had also broken up the pack ice at the other side of the peninsula. the side from which Cayley, on the wing. had first approached this un- known land The yacht might be there. riding safely in practically open water.
 He got up from the snow nest he had made for himself in the lee of the rock, and cautiously fiexed his stiffen- | ed muscles, with the idea of setting l out at once down the beach and around the headland to learn whether this last hope of his was groundless. Really, in his heart, he had no hope at all. but that fact made 1t easy to postpone for little longer the putting of this delusion of hope ne hac to the test of reality.
 The excuse he made to himself was, that he was ravenously hungry. and that his most sensible course would be to go up the glacier to the cave and cook himself a breakfast before he did anything else.
 l He was fully persuaded by that time that what he had seen at the hut last night during the storm had been noth- he knew that it would be easier to walk past that empty hut in full broad day, than in this tricky. misty uncer- tain light of dawn.
 He carried out this plan at once. to the point, that is. of going up the glacier to the cave. building a fire there and satisfying his sharp hunger with an enormous meal But he had not slept ak all the night before, and now the warmth and the satisfaction of his appetite made his nerveless hand release the bone he was gnaw ing, and caused him to roll over be- side the fire and to fall asleep.
 He slept deeply for a number of hours Then. srming himself with a throwing-stick and a numper of darts. he stepped outside the cave, intent upon his expedition to the other side of the peninsula where there was . possibility of finding the yacht
 The cave was situated some little distance up the glacier, and ne shortest, though by far the more diff fioult. way of reaching his destination lay. net along the beach but up through the interior valley and across the precipitous coast range of hills.
 It was not the natural way to go, put the fact that 1t was actually short CT gave him sort of excuse for avoid. ing another visit, just now. to tho scene of his dlsccmliture of tho night before. He swore ct himself. not so much for taking this courae as for the reasons which his common sense al loged against him.
 His present route took him close to the gold ledge. and the sight of the inexhaustible, precious, useless metal that remained here brought upon him for the first time, in full force, a sense of his loss, sense of what that luckless trip ashore from the Aurora fin search of that rosewood box had cost him.
 At an increased pace he descended from the glacier. crossed the valley and sealed the landward side of one of the mountains of the coast range. to a notch where he could command a view of the sea to the westward
 He saw .here what, in the bottom of bis mind. he had all along been sure
 
 barren, bleak horizon
 At that. for a while. his fortitude broke down, and he rayed and wept and cursed like one demented. But at last, spent sobered. conscious onco more of sharp hunger. he climbed a little farther up the mountain to a ledge, where, as his minute knowledge of the country led him to expect he found a number of looms sitting. He killed one of these birds with a dart sna then. like the brute he was. ate it raw and warm.
 By that time 1t was late in the aft ernoon. Bravado, combined with a more real belief than ne Tad yet suc- reeded in retaining, to the effect that ell his terror of the night before had resulted from nothing more serious than nightmare, led him to decide to go home by way of the beach, rather than along the difficult interior trail up which he had come.
 The descent from the ciiff-head to the beach was nothing to man of his inhuman strength and activity, though an ordinary skilled mountaineer might have hesitated before attempting it. Nevertheless, two-thirds of the way i down he nearly feIl-but for luck he would have fallen. for he caught a glimpse of lonely figure. quarter of