Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-04-13

When, after a period Of tantalizina
twilight, the sun again came fairly
over the horizon, they besought their
commander, with a savage sort Of
eagerness from which he might have
augured Ill, that he take them at
sight Of 1t from a distance, even az
Cayley had done, hung in the air
above the valley, and had run reck-
lessly on ahead Of their leader. When
he came up to them, he found them
dangerously excited, the man Roscoe
fairly dazed and drunken with 1t.
Finally Fielding had left them to
their W devices, and came away
with his two companions. And until
the light Of that short day had begun
to fail, they-the Walrus people
stayed, gloating over this strangely
useless treasure.
For three days after that the man
Roscoe eve spoke a word. On the
fourth day, when the little party as
sembled for their midday meal, the II
men Of the Walrus were the only
ones to answer the summons. Cap
tain Fielding and his two companions
had disappeared.
Captain Planck could not recall thai
meal now without s~huddering, for
there at the foot Of the table, oppo-
site to him, had sat the man Roscoe,
with murder written plain in every
line Of his face. He had looked a
beast, rather than a man, that day.
The stated blood lust in his eyes made
them positively terrifying, SO that the
others shrank away from him. He
had seemed not to notice 1t, at lea 3
not to take offense at 1t. He was M
hilarious spirits for the first time
since they had known him; seemed
really to try to be a good companion.
Captain Planck abdicated his lead
ership that day. He was perfectly
conscious Of the fact. He had known
that to retain the leadership he must
take that murderer out and execute
him. He knew that If he did not dc
this, the murderer, not he, would here.
after command the party, and that
unless he himself yielded the prompt
est obedience Of any, he would follow
the luckless trio whom they wera
never to e again.
From that day to this there had
been no more murders. Roscoe had
| rued them with a decision and a
| turbulence which put anything like
characterization out of the question.
: He had been obeyed better than Cap.
tain Planck ever had been. He had
worked them ~iercely all those -four
9 years, cutting, everlastingly, at that
wonderful, eXhautless golden ledge
t beating the friable ore out of It with
( heavy mauls, then, laboriously, con
veying the great rude slabs Of pure
n metal on rough sledges over the per
d petual ice of the glacier to a cav,
y near the shore, where they had de
posted it. There were literally toni
Q of 1t hidden there when the smoke
e from the yachts funnel was first seer
o on the horizon.
The moment the news of the ap
preaching steamer was reported Il
Roscoe, he had entered upon what
seemed to his followers a thoroughly
irrational and inexplicable line of &C
C ton. He had ordered them, first, t.
remove all signs Of recent habitatioI
from the hut to the cave where theil
gold was concealed; then, to cover tn,
cave mouth with a heap of boulderR
s to secure 1t against discovery.
l. Long before the strongest glass Of
the ship could have made out thei
n moving figures, he took the Who'll
e party back to the hills in hiding. H
It had kept them from answering tn
d halls and the gun-ire from the zach
3 by the sheer weight Of his authority
without vouchsa1ng a word Of expls
y nation.
s, The next day they had seen tn
4, searching party come ashore, and wit
y their knowledge of the lay of 'th
D. land found it perfectly easy to evad
k observation, though nothing but tn
y strong habit Of obedience kept Their
d, from counting it.
n Then, along in the afternoon, ha
happened what seemed to them tn
Ie strangest thing Of all. They had see
d a solitary ~straggler from the search
70 ing party coming along across tn
ice. He could not see them. 1t wou1
have been perfectly easy to evad
le him, but Roscoe now ordered the1
p, to go down to him and tell him VIII
Is they we're, and to offer to escort hill
ID along the trail down the glacier. An
at a certain point they were to la
ID behind and let him go on alone. Thu
ct was all any of them knew of the
le leaders plans, till they saw the iyin
ut dart and the smudge Of crimson G
the snow.
ut Now, at last, came Planck to I'll
In leader, asking the reason why. B,
ID his mission, IS 1t appeared, had ut
e. prospered.
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