The Glenwood post., 1911-07-08

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the enemy the stores. They had Cap
tain Fielding's journal. their enemy
the experience and practical knowl-
edge of the country. They were two.
with but a single weapon between
them. Their enemy, for aught they
knew, might be one or half a dozen;
and how armed, they did not know.
Fortunately. no prophetic vision en-
abled them to anticipate, on that first
evening, the length of time that that
precarious life and death balance
would maintain itself They had
agreed, Philip and Jeanne, that the
only thing to do was to wait and to
maintain an unwinking vigilance. But
both of them thought of the duration
of this wait in terms of hours. or, at
most, days. Had they foreseen that
1t would stretch itself out into weeks
and months, they might we'll have des-
paired.
There were two things that kept
them from succumbing to despair.
The first was that they never really
permitted themselves to hope. to in
dulge in any thoughts of summers
day when their horizon should be cut
by the spars and tunnels of ship
bringing relief. They were simply
going to live one day at a time. For
every day that they could snatch out
of the hand Of death, they would give
thanks. 1t was the only attitude pos
sible for people in their condition.
And the thing that helped them to
maintain 1t was the abundance of nee
essary routine occupation. They di-
vided their day into watches. Cayley
noon until midnight and then kept
watch alone. as the girl had done, un-
til eight. During that period they re-
mained inside the hut. The day, from
eight until four, they spent out OF
doors, when the condition of the
weather made this possible. either at
work or merely tramping up and down
for exercise.
At first there was a good deal of
work to do. Tearing down the sheds
which clustered about the hut and
reducing their frames and planking
to f1re-wood was an arduous task, but
he worked at 1t until it was done.
Jeanne standing sentinel all the time.
When 1t was done, they were prac-
tically secure against surprise, for
from their windows, with the aid Of
field-glass which Cayley had found
in the observatory. they were able to
sweep the whole beach absolutely
clean, in both directions.
And almost every day while the
light lasted, with Jeanne, armed with
the revolver. keeping watch before the
hut. Cayley took to his wings and
patrolled the beach. from the glacier
to the promontory, high up above the
level of the crest Of the cliff His
flight was always along the same
track. He never winged his way in
land nor out to sea.
There were two reasons for this
He dared not go SO far away from
not bring him to her side. The other
reason was, that II a superstitious fear
of this great man-bird were really
what deferred their enemy from at
tacking them, it was well to let him
believe that immunity from this por-
tent could be secured by keeping
away from this particular stretch of
beach.
AS the shortening days sped by and
began to get themselves reckoned into
weeks, the conviction grew upon
Philip and Jeanne that their securest
protection lay in his wings, in the
terrorizing effect upon their invisible
silent enemy of the majestic winged
apparition which was SO often seen
soaring In midsky above the hut and
the little stretch OF beach surrounding
It, Something was protecting them
evidently. Almost every week brought
some evidence, not only of the exis-
tence but the nearness OF their enemy
They never actually caught sight or
sound of him, but some times when
the wind blew from the right quarter
they could make out, with their field
glass, wrack of brownish smoke
such as would be given off by burning
whale oil, drifting down from some
where along the glacier, and made
visible by the dazzling whiteness of
that background.
And sometimes they saw track in
the newly fallen snow, never coming
very near the hut, but trespassing
little way, either down from the
glacier or up from the headland, upon
the stretch of beach they were de-
Tending. They never found the tracks
of more than single man. and these
were always the same. So that they
came to believe, although they could
not know. that they had only one man
to deal with.
They sometimes speculated on the
question whether he was Roscoe or
some other member of the Walrus
crew; really. in fact, they found it
impossible to hope that 1t was any
other than he.
They got proof of his identity, or
what amounted to 1t, along toward the