Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-05-11

the coast and the account Of his
plight, together with the course which
the relief ship must take, should such
a relief ship be sent out, to have any
hope at all of reaching them.
II suppose" his narrative for this
day concluded, there is hardly one
chance in ten thousand that my mes
sage will ever be picked up, and GER
tainly not one in a million that 1t will
be found in time to bring an effective
relief. However. 1t helps to keep the
others cheerful, and that is the main
At the close of the days entry was
a single line which contracted her
heart with a sharp spasm of pain.
This is Jeanne's birthday" 1t said,
She resumed her reading presently,
and came to the point where the Wal
rus people entered into the narrative;
their plight, their rescue and their
welcome by the three men, who by
now were the only survivors Of the
original expedition.
She vas reading faster now, with
none Of those little meditative pauses
that had marked her progress through
the earlier pages of the journal, for
the sinister termination OF the nara
tive began to foreshadow itself dark
ly, from the moment-the first mo-
ment Of the appearance of the Walrus
people IN the scene. Her fathers de-
scription of the man Roscoe, Of the
expression that had been plain to read
In his face as he had listened to the
account of the gold-bearing ledge
across the glacier, gave her a shudder-
ing premonition; apparently, her IA
Their had experienced the same feeling
himself, Day after day Roscoe's name
appeared, always accompanied by
some little phase of misgiving.
For Just n day this dread seemed
to have been lifted from Captain Field
ing's spirit. That was the day the sun
came back to them, putting an end to
their long arctic night. TT has been
a hard winter" he wrote, "and / am
glad it is over. The hardest thing
about 1t has been our sleeplessness,
from which we have all suffered. To-
day we have enjoyed a change, having
taken a walk along the beach. Even
Roscoe seems humanized a little by a
return Of the frank sunshine, and may,
perhaps, develop into a tolerable com
panion. Tomorrow I have promised.
If it is fine, to guide them across the
glacier to the gold ledge"
1t was the next to the last entry In
the journal. She turned the page,
paled and pressed her lips tight to-
gether when the array of blank pages
before her told her that she had
reached the end. Then she read the
last words her father had ever writ
ten.
Took the Walrus people to The
ledge today. Have no heart to de
scribe the scene that they enacted
there. The man Roscoe c~ertainl.
means to kill me. II 1t were not TO
my conviction that the danger from
him Is largely personal to myself, tina
ne means me and no other, probably
lOL LIS FlCLlLut 4 IulHh 1 SuUulu LAW
him shot as a measure of justif1ablc
prevention. He is not a man, but {
great sinister brute-literally sinister
for he is left-handed. / shall wall
warily, and hope the crisis may soor
be over" Evidently that part of hi!
wish had come true.
The book slipped out Of the girl
hands, and she sat, with horror-widen
ed eyes, staring at the candle. until l
guttered and went out. Slowly, thu
outside world began to take Its place
again around her. She knew that sh'
was ~shivering, half-frozen, that the ic!
wind was whining through the cracks
in her rude shelter.
She thought she heard some on
moving about outside, and tina
thought brought her quickly to he
feet. She made her way to the doc
of the hut, called out; waited a breath
less instant-and cried aloud in sue
den terror.