The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-09-23

christmas day. Perhaps those stars
were caroling their Christmas chimes.
Perhaps, down in the world Of men.
the windows were hung with holly and
doorways with mistletoe.
Before his thoughts had advanced
as far as that he was flying down to-
ward the cliff-head. He could only
guess at the length of time that had
elapsed since he left Jeanne, on her
heap Of skins, there In the mouth of
the snow tunnel. 1t must have been
an hour or more, for the moon had
been shining when he started, and
now almost the last of its twilight had
died on the horizon.
A sharp sense of his own delin-
quency in having left her to her own
resources for SO long, when she had
SO few resources to draw upon. In
creased to sudden alarm for her
safety, when he made out the black
mouth of the tunnel and saw that
there was no light at the farther end
of 1t. She couldn't have been waiting
all this time, out in the cold; and yet
his eyes, as he lowered, seeking the
exact spot to alight, certainly made
out dark object lying there upon
the snow. His heart felt like lead as
he dropped close beside it, and scram-
bled clear of his wings.
It was Jeanne; and for a moment
he thought she was dead. She
seemed as white and cold as the snow
itself. And yet she was not dead; not
even frozen. The hands he chafed SO
frantically were inert, but not rigid;
and, as he drew her up in his arms
and pressed his head down against
her breast, he could hear,very family
and slowly, the beating of her heart.
He picked her up in his arms and
carried her into the pilot house. The
air here was still warmer than that
out Of doors, but 1t was no longer ex-
hausted and poisonous.
He laid her down for long enough
to light the lamp, to throw off his stiff
leather jacket and to get a little
brandy out of the key. This he mixed
with little water and, with the aid
of small ivory spoon, he succeeded
In getting q little of it between her
lips.
He took of her heavy seal coat, and
the WOODEN jacket she wore under It..
and, as we'll as he could, loosened the
other clothing about her waist Last
OF all, he gathered her up in his arms
again, wrapped the great sheep-skin
bag about them both and, with the
brandy and water within arms reach,
settled down to attempt to get some
OF the warmth and vitality of his own
body into hers.
She was not fully unconscious now,
for the next time he offered her
brandy she swallowed 1t. Her eyelids
were fiuttering little, too, and pres.
emily she sighed.
He was thrilling all over with q
tremendous sense of power. He felt
he could have brought her back from
the very dead. His arteries seemed to
be running with electricity, not blood.
Her lips were moving now, and he
bent close to catch the whisper that
barely succeeded in passing them.
Don't bring me back-Philip. It's
so much-easier to go-this way"
His only reply to that was to hold
her a little closer.
She did not resist when he held
the drink to her lips again; but after
she had taken two or three sips of it,
she said:
II sha'n't need any more. I'm get
ting quite beautifully warm again"
He knew it was true. She no longer
felt lifeless in his arms, though she
still lay there quite relaxed. He
knew he could let her go now, safely
enough. And yet he held her fast.
Il thought you were dead when ]
saw you lying there on the snow," he
said at last, not very steadily. IF
you had been, it would have been my
own doing"
She contradicted him with 4 sharp
negative gesture.
"You left me we'll enough wrapped
up 70 nave resisted the cold for any
length of time. Besides, If I'd wanted
to I could have come back in here
But-but, Philip Oh, 1t seems a
dreadful thing to confess, now you
are here with mel didn't want to. I
just lay down on the snow, thinking
I could go to sleep and-and that
would be the end-such an easy end!"
She felt him shudder all over as
she said 1t, and she clasped his shout
ders and held them tight, in a desire
to reassure and comfort him.
did you mean to do that. :.
Was that why you asked me to fly
away for while7"
mo! No! It was something I saw
while you were gone, something that
terrified me. Philip, do you remem.
Der how many of the people of the
Phoenix died of what father called
the ice madness?"
He nodded gravely.
"Well, what saw made me think
that l was going that way, too. Philip,
I was Watching the moon go down,