, 1911-04-20

to hope for, at any rate"
She followed hin a little perplexed.
T hope for?" she repeated cues
tioningly.
He had already entered the hut. and
did not at once volunteer any further
explanation. but from the shine of ex-
element she could see in his eyes. II
was evident that he contemplated
something better than merely hold.
Ing death at arms length for n
little while.
To the girls eyes there was but lit
tie about the interior of the hut to &C.
count for such a hope, even though
she saw that all Of the things he had
said about It were true. The flimsy
inner doors were still hinged to their
frames, and were provided with a
I miscellaneous assortment of catches.
1t was marine hardware, all Of 1t. evil
IDENTIFY from her fathers ship. the
Phoenix. The hunks and shelves which
lined the walls looked perfectly solid
and well built. But the general ap-
pearance of the room presented a look
OF disrepair. II was absolutely I'M
furnished. The great heap of smoke
blackened stones. Of various sizes and
shapes. and the hole in the root above
them, attested that they had once
been a fireplace.
from the forlorn aspect Of the room
the girl gladly turned her eyes away
n stood looking at Cayley instead.
He had e sweeping the walls, roof
and floor in a general survey. Now.
abruptly. he went over to the heap Of
stones, picked up one of them, rubbed
his thumb over 1t and scrutinized.
with an air Of considerable interest,
the black smear It left.
That would account for the drift
wood" he said absently.
At that he might have seen in the
girls face a look of half-amused i'm
patience, but his abstraction was too
deep for him to notice 1t.
He walked over to one Of the side
walls. pulled open what proved to
be a big solid shutter, revealing a
glazed window. and. for a long while.
stood there, unconscious of the look
the girl had turned upon him, uncon-
scious Of his present surroundings.
AGO. oohiCthih6 " hop0 " Col MI
ly." He turned away from the win
dow as he said 1t, and smiled at her.
"A good hope-a good fighting hope
that when the relief comes back next
summer they'll find o here alive"
"Tf you say SO, I'll believe It." said
the girl, because you told me the
truth before. But do you mind telling
me why?"
81 should have thought Of It o
er. I should have noticed It last
night My guess was right, that's all.
This is not an abandoned hut. Don't
you see, it's in almost perfect repair?
The hinges on this shutter work, al
though II you look closely you can see
that some one gave a tug at them not
long & in an attempt to pull them
out. And that patch on the wall was
put on within a month. The men
who wrecked this placed worked hasti-
ly and showed no great degree Of imag-
nation. They hadn't much time. you
see. because they couldn't have begun
until they caught their hrst glimpse
Of the yacht. They had finished the
Job before they could send a party
ashore"
But why in the world should they
do such a thing?" the girl protested.
He shook his head. IT haven't
worked that out yet, not fully, at any
rate. After all, it's not the question
hat concerns u.s."
I'm still in q maze about 1t. What
did you mean about the drift woodf"
why, the SCOT on these stones
showed me that. They haven't been
burning drift wood in this fireplace.
They've been burning coal-or oil. per-
haps. / hadn't thought Of that. That's
why the drift wood collected again out
there on the talus. You remember
your father speaks Of having used It
all? There have been . dozen men
living here ever since. and they didn't
need It. So they must have had some
other sort Of fuel"
you mean they've got . supply
somewhere-hiddenf"
. He nodded. Not only O supply OF
fuel, but Of food. too. You remember
your father also speaks OF having his
larder completely stocked for the win
ter at this timer Well, these fellows
weren't expecting any relief. They
! must have stocked their larder, too
OF course" he went on q ome
later, 81 realized vagueIy all along
that there must be stores somewhere
here on the land because men were
living here, but on the theory that
hey had abandoned the beach and
we're living in some undiscovered part
Of the mainland. our chance OF finding
those stores was almost nothing at all.
Finding them would be like trying TO
and Point Barrow in a fog. But you
see. II they kept them hero In these
huts. and then hid them when they
caught sight of the yacht. while they
may be we'll hidden. they can't be far
away. There wouldn't have been time
to move them far; certainly n o over
the glacier and into the interior there