Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-06-15

Here, Just Where you leIC mo-
Here! All the while! You must
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 the time she asked that question
they had CROPPED their way back INTO
the storeroom and thence into the liv-
ing room of the hut, and by now she
was looking at him in the full light of
day.
He dropped down, with a rather ex-
plosive sigh, upon mi Of the hunks,
and poked tentatively at his thighs
and shoulders as If they were numb
with fatigue.
81 think by a reasonable estimate"
he said, that chimney Is five miles
high. l kept going and going and 60
ing, till | began to believe that there
wasn't any end to it; or that, by some
magic or other, l slipped down a
yard as often as | went up one, But
| did get to the end at last; and I'll
| give you a thousand guesses as to
what I found there"
1.-THE observatory" she hazarded.
ooh! but not really? l did not mean
that for an honest guess at all. 1t was
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, I don't be-
lieve they did," he answered with
hooking seriousness. TITS more like
" that they took 1t to pieces, and then
rugged a boom and tackle up at the
cliff-head and hauled 1t up outside.
But when they got 1t up there they
put it together again right across the
assure, and then %tunnelled down, or
I'D, the whole depth Of the elm. II
must have taken them weeks to do It,
and when 1t was done they had an In
side connection between 1t and the
hut, so that they were quite indepen'
dent Of the weather. And 1t mus
have been a great place to make OBJ
servations from"
Have been!" she echoed question
ingly. Isn't it now?"
mo, because it's all showed ant
frozen in. It's buried, | don't know
how many feet deep by this time, ant
dark, Of course, as a pocket. Bu'
everything inside is quite undisturbed
| doubt If a single member of the Wal
rus crew ever saw 1t, or even sus
pected that such a place existed"
J He unbuttoned his Jacket and tool
Q from an inner pocket a scrap of pa
per.
I Being a methodical person." he ex
planned, II made an inventory. 1T
Q really quite a respectable list"
She seated herself beside him Of
the bunk as If to read the paper.
h 81 imagine you will need an inter
prefer" he said. I've half forgotten
. what these tracks mean myself. M,
I hands we're SO stiff with the cold |
r wasn't very easy to write. But tina
o first word is telescope. And the
there are the meteorological instru
d ments, barometers, thermometers, an
g so on, and the Phoenix's compass, sex
tant and chronometer, a microscope
d a parafine oven and a big chunk Q
parafane, an oil lamp, a ~ive-gallon ca
about half full OF oil, and a smaI
stove. There was a providential treas
ure for me in the form Of a razol
which they used, l suppose, for cuttin
e microscopic sections with. I'm gla
they hadn't a miorotone to do 1t prof.
erly."
''You didn't find a comb for me, di
j., your" she asked. Because, unles
;. you did, or until you do, you won
- be allowed to use the razor"
. 81 suppose I could make you on,
= or a sort Of one. 1t would be genuin
q ivory, anyway"
= He had come, apparently, to the en-
- of the list.
:, We'll" she said, 81 suppose "
might find something to do with q
most any one Of those things; SON
: of them will be useful, certainly. An
p tE's pleasant, somehow, to think OF o.
1t little pilot house, all showed in,
it there on the cliff.head, and Of u
side passage leading up to 1t"
That's quite true" he said. Il su
ID pose it's all romantic nonsense, but
does give one a certain feeling OF
u security. However," he we.
ot on, we're not reduced as yet to an
TO thing as intangible as that as a su
ject for giving thanks. You haver
'e seer the whole of my list yet. T.
n saved the best till the last"
IL He turned the paper over in n
Id hand as he spoke. She did not attem
to to read what he had written, but S
As there beside him, her hands clasp
about one knee, her eyes upon t
q, booted foot which was poised aero
the other, and waited rather tense
l.