The Mena weekly star., 1911-02-23


Her Next Act Expressed.
last spring would prove effective. She
no more faltered over 1t than she
would have faltered over her alphabet.
And at last, when her numbed An
gers had completed their task. the
counterweighted lid rose slowly by
itself, just as 1t had used to- and re-
yealed to her swimming eyes the con-
tents of the interior
Up to the moment she had not real
lied what the finding of the dispatch
box meant. 1t had not occurred TO
her that full account Of her fathers
expedition, a narrative which would
reach, perhaps, to the morning of the
last day of all. was lying here, right
under her eyes.
But now when the cover opened and
she saw beneath It thick volume,
bound in red morocco. she realized
that here, under her hand, was the
very object, in search of which the
Aurora had set out upon her perilous
voyage
The first sight of her fathers clear,
erect, precise handwriting warmed
her with a sudden courage But even
this new inspiration of courage did
not make her strong enough to turn
back and read the last entry in that
tragic journal first She tried TO do
It, but the will failed her So she be-
gan at the beginning. Once she had
plunged into the fascinating nara
tive, the whole of the outside world
faded away from her She was oblivious
to the fact that the darkness outside
was no longer the mere darkness OF
the fog; oblivious to the rising wind
that poured its icy stream through the
leaky walls of the hut and made the
candle flicker; obliyious, even to the
very sound which she had meant to
wait for-the sound OF Toms voice
calling out to her from the yacht and
the sound of other, more alarming,
nearer voices.
They all fell ON deaf ears as she
turned page after page OF that pre-
cious record OF her fathers life. 1t
was written, in the main, in the scien-
tific. observsnt. unimpassioned temper
which she knew so we'll He chron-
icled those days OF peril. when their
ship, crushed In the ice. and only kept
from sinking by that very ice, which
had just destroyed her, was drifting
along in the pack to what seemed
certain destruction, as quietly and as
explicitly as he did the uneventfu
voyage through Behring strait The
mans courage was so deeply element
al in him that he could not be self
conscious about It.
He told OF the land, the strange, I'M
charted shore. whose discovery offer
ed them a respite. at least. from that
destruction; told how he got his re-
naming stores ashore and built the
hut, where. in all human probability,
he and his companions were to spend
the rest of their lives.
Finally she reached the record Of
the day when he had consigned to the
sea the bottle containing the chart Of
the coast and the account Of his
plight, together with the course which
the relief ship must take, should such
Il ~ ICilCl sup We btiAt OuA W nave aHt
hope at all Of reaching them.
Il 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
1 al nh.a f..l hnt so xrsf y
thing"
At the close of the days entry was
= 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 was 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 UCEdu 10 ioi trHduON ltoSi uai n
~, from the moment-the first mo-
ment of the appearance of the Walrus
people on 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 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 one 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 70
their long arctic night. 1t has been
hard winter" he wrote, "and ! on
glad It Is over The hardest thing
about It has been our sieeplessness
from which we have all suffered. To
day We have enjoyed change. having
taken walk along the beach. Ever
Roscoe seems humanized little by I
return of the frank sunshine. and may
perhaps, develop into a folerahle com
panlon. Tomorrow ! have promised
II II is fine. 70 guide them across TIN
glacier to the gold ledca."
II WAS the next to the last entry II