Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1911-11-10
CHAPTER XVI.
Footprints.

Footprints.
Nature had nothing to do with the
| formation Of it, so much was clean
enough. 1t had been cut out by hand
| and evidently with infinite labor
Flashing his bull's-eye over 1t did
not enable him to see the end of it
but it did reveal series of notches
running straight up the two opposite
surfaces. The only purpose they could
serve would be to make possible the
ascent of the chimney
Jeanne followed his gaze, and then
the two looked at each other, CON-
pletely puzzled.
Some one must have made it," she
said; land it must have been fright
fully hard to make-a tunnel right up
through the ice like that But what
in the world can they have made it
fort"
I've no idea" he confessed, but it
goes somewhere, and l mean to find
out where"
Don't follow it too far" she eau
toned. 1T would only need one foot
slip of one Of those icy notches to
bring about a dreadfully ugly fall"
One couldn't fall far down a tube
of that diameter, unless he had com
pletely lost his nerve, for there's al
ways chance to catch ones self And
you're to remember that I'm used to
falling. No, I'll be as safe up there as
would ON turnpike. Yes, really"
With that and nod of reinsurance,
he scrambled up into the mouth of the
long chimney. He had taken his
bulls-eye with him, so the girl was
left in the dark. She dropped down
on the heap OF bear skins to wait for
him
She had no means of measuring the
time, and 1t seemed a perfectly in
terminable while before she heard
Cayley returning down the ice chin
ney. Had she known how long it real
ly was, she would have been justified
in feeling seriously worried about aim,
but not knowing, she attributed the
seeming duration of his delay to the
tedium of sitting in the dark, with
nothing to do. Even at that, she was
conscious of a feeling of relief when
she heard him call out to her once
more, cheerfully, albeit somewhat
lollowly, from the chimney's mouth:
Jeanne, where are you?"
Here, just where you left me-"
Here! All the whilel You must
% half frozen. I've been gone the
better part of an hour"
Il didn't know how long it was, and
kept thinking you'd be back any !
minute. But where in the
world have you been?"
BY the time she asked that question |
hey had CROPPED their way back into |
he storeroom and thence into the liv-
ng room of the hut. and by now she
vas looking at him In the full light of |
ay.
He dropped down, with a rather ex-
losive sigh, upon one of the hunks,
nd poked tentatively at his thighs
nd shoulders as if they we're numb
nth fatigue.
Il think by a reasonable estimate"
e said. that chimney Is five miles
Ugh. I kept going and going and go
lg, till l began to believe that there
-asn't any end to it; or that, by some
lagic or other, l slipped down a
ard as often as / went up one. But
did get to the end at last; and I'll
i've you a thousand guesses as to
hat found there"
THE observatory" she hazarded
Dbl but not really? ! did not mean
lat for an honest guess at all. 1t was
Ist the first thing that came into my
cad. But how could they pull the
lot house of the Phoenix up through
at little hole in the ice?"
We'll, to tell the truth, I don't be-
eve they did," he answered with
ocking seriousness. It's more like
that they took it to pieces, and then
gged a boom and tackle up at the
iff-head and hauled it up outside.
1t when they got it up there they (
it it together again right across the
sure, and then tunnelled down, or ;
}, the whole depth of the elm. II S
ust have taken them weeks to do it, r
d when it was done they had an in l.
lie connection between it and the q
t, so that they were quite indepen- p
MT of the weather. And it must
We been a great place to make OBJ v
rvations from"
Have beenlr she echoed question IL
Fly. Isn't IL now?'' Il
No, because it's all showed and Il
ven in. It's buried, I don't know b
W many feet deep by this time, and a