The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1911-04-21
CHAPTER iI.-Contlnued,

trying to do so. She had spoken sim
ply, and very gravely, but it was evil
dent the years had no. 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 gun-fre
if they find anyone alive. But they
have been out all day and there has
been no sound. You will understand,
/ think, though, why I 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, man
with wings?"
Il suppose it's because of the
Wings" he answered her. Il slept
there once, early this sum- er-slept,
and rested, and ate a meal"
There" she echoed incredulously.
Where do you mean?"
"At the pole, or within half degree
of it won't guarantee my instru-
ments, nor my hit-and-miss observa-
tons any more accurately than that
and it seemed a poor nlace to risk
ones life trying to reao- Just the
ice-pack--the eternal ice-pack moth
ing but that" Then his eyes lighted
little But l should like to go there
some time in the winter-should like
to fly straight ahead, for hours and
hours, through the long dark, until l
could see the North Star squarely
above my head in the zenith, the cen
ter of all the universe. That would
be a sight worth having, l should
think. Some day, perhaps, shall try
for it. And then one could go straight
on across-a week or ten days would
do it all-from Dawson City, say, to
St. Petersburg"
Dawson City to st. Petersburg!"
she repeated; "only a creature of
wings could put those two cities in
the same sentence, even in magma
ton. And even with you it must be
imaginary You couldn't do it. really
could you?"
YES" he said; 81 could do It,"
You're tireless, them" she asked.
"You would go on flying, flying, with
out rest. for a week."
II don't fly" he told her, "or hardly
at ALL The birds don't fly, not these
great sea birds that live on the wing.
They sail; so do l."
But, then, don't you have to go
with the wind?"
You've sailed boat, haven't your
he asked by way of answer. You put
I'D a sail to catch the breeze, and
then you make it force your boat right
I'D into it; make your boat go against
the wind. by the force Of the wind
itself. That was regarded as mir
acle once when men first did it."
"Of course" she admitted, but you
do that by lacking"
That's the way do it-by lacking.
and the force of gravity is my heel"
How long have you lived like
this?" she asked abruptly
Really lived? Only three months
or so. spent the better part Of Ave
years learning to fly"
"And you have flown all over the
world?"
"All over this most deserted patch
of It,"
There was another silence. Then
she said: And what contempt you
must have for us-for us, poor wing
less creatures, who cannot cross lit
tie assure in a rock or a bit Of open
water without such toilsome labor.
Yes, that must be the feeling-con-
tempt; 1t could hardly be pity"
'Tf that's true" he rejoined quickly,
ats only poetic Justice. I've only
achieved toward the world the feeling
which the world held for me-"
The words were spoken harshly,
abruptly. as If his memory had just
tasted something intolerably bitter.
The manner of the words. no less
than the sense of them startled her.
and she checked a movement to turn
and look into his face. Instead. she
tried to recall 1t as It had looked
when she had first stood confronting
him. before the twilight had faded Z