Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-07-14
CHAPTER XVI.
Eootprlnts.

formation of it, SO much was clear
enough. It had been cut out by hano'
and evidently with infinite labor.
Flashing his bulls-eye over 1t did
not enable him to see the end OF II,
but 1t did reveal a 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, COM
pletely puzzled.
Some one must have made II" h
said; "and it must have been fright
fully hard to make-a TUNE right up
through the ice like that. But what
in the world can they have made II
fort"
1--WE no idea," he confessed, but 1t
goes somewhere, and I mean to mo
out where"
Don't follow it too far" she eau
toned. ut would only need one loot
slip of one of those icy notches to
bring about a dreadfully ugly fall
zone couldn't fall far down a tube
Of hat diameter, unless he had COM
pletely lost his nerve, for there's al
ways a chance to catch one's self. And
you're to remember that I'm used to
falling. No, I'll be as safe up there as
1 would on a turnpike. Yes. really"
With that and a nod Of reinsurance,
he scrambled up into the mouth OF the
long chimney. He had taken his
b~ull's-eye with him, SO the girl was
left In the dark. She dropped dow
on the heap of bear skins to wait for
him.
She had no means Of measuring the
time, and it 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
hollowly, from the chimney's mouth:
Jeanne, where are you"
Here, Just where o left me"
Here! All the while! You
be half frozen. I'VE been gone the
better part of an hour"
81 didn't know how long it was, and
l kept thinking you'd be back any
minute. But where in the
world have you been?"
BY he time she asked that question
they had CROPPED their way back n
the storeroom and thence Into III Nv
| ing room of the hut, and by now she
was looking at him in the full light OF
day.
He dropped down, with q rather e1-
| plosiye sigh, upon one Of the hunks,
and poked tentatively at his thighs
and shoulders as II they were numb
with fatigue. :.
II think by a reasonable estimate
he said. that chimney Is i've miles
high. / kept going and going and go
in9. till 1 began to believe that there
! wasn't any end to 1t; or that. By some
magic or other, ! slipped down q
yard as often as I went up one. But
I did get to the end at last; and IN
1--WE you a thousand guesses as to
what I found there"
"The observatory" she hazarded
"Oh! but not really? l did not mean
that for an honest guess at all. 1t wa
lust the first thing that came into my
head. But how could they pull the
pilot house of the Phoenix up through
that little hole in the ice?
well, to tell the truth, l don't be
ueve they did," he answered Will
knocking seriousness. ITS more lk
" that they took it to pieces, and ther
rugged a boom and tackle up at thu
clin-head and hauled 1t up outside
But when they got it up there the.
put It together again right across tn
assure, and then tunnelled down. o.
up. the whole depth Of the clin. I
must have taken them weeks to do 1t
and when 1t was done they had an IN
side connection between 1t and tn
hut, so that they were quite indepen
dent Of the weather. And 1t mus
have been a great place to make OF
servations from"
"Have been!" she echoed question
inely. isn't it now"
mo, because it's all showed ar
frozen in. It's buried, ! don't know
how many feet deep by this time, an
dark, of course, as a pocket Blu