Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1911-07-14


back, into her cheeks.
For while she did not speak AZ
all then. as II replying to com
ment Of his. she said:
Yes, it's beautiful But
Philip it's dead. Dead"
Not this air that has ozone spar.
king ALI through it. Il is alive enough
70 make your blood dance. It's doing
that now"
he tried to persuade her to take a
little exercise along the length of the
tunnel, but she demurred to that In
stead, she asked him to bring out
some oear-skins and let her sit there
at the elin-head looking out
And she supplemented. "if Won
want to know what should like most
of all, 1t would be to have Won bring
your wings so that can see you fly.
ing again, and feld-glass that can
watch you through"
He felt some hesitation, partly ont
of fear of leaving her and partly
from a doubt concerning his own
strength; but neither of these reasons
was one he cared TO avow. So he un.
furled the bundle that had lain dis
used so long, spread and frightened
and tested it. and at last, with a nod
Of farewell to the girl, dived off the
cliff-head
Any doubt he may have had con
corning his strength disappeared at
once. The mere touch of those great
wings Of his seemed to bring IL all
back, and hope and JOY and confidence
along with it.
He made his dive as shallow as pos
sible. and in the sheer exuberance of
delight at being once more awning, he
beat his way aloft again by main
strength, towering like a falcon. All
his old power was here unrmpaired.
yet every sensation It brought him
was heightened and make thrilling by
long disuse. BY means of those great.
obedient wings OF his he played upon
the capricious. vagrant air with the
superb insolence of mastery Every
trick of flight was at his command,
gate bird, the corkscrew spiral of the
tern, the plummet-like pounce of the
hawk, and, at last, the majestic, soar
ing drift of the king Of them all. the
albatross.
So he hung there in midsky, and the
world, white, frozen, immaculate
looked far away. The old, god-like
serenity, untroubled, untrammeled, UNI
afraid, came back to him. The soul
opened It's gates, up there, lost its
boundaries, and all the spirit OF the
sky came in, immense cold, clear as
the all-pervading ether. This was
Nirvana, though the old Buddhist
adopts who had philosophical about 1t
had never conquered the sky, had
never bathed in it as Cayley on his
wings was bathing new
The declining moon sank lower, till
the refracting ice crystals that filled
the air caught It's light slantwise and
danced with it so that 1t fiickered like
a will-o -the-wisp, The sky deepened
from It's bright steel-blue to purple
The silver light upon the snow faded.
through lavender and lilac, to pur-
pie of its own, only less deep than that
of the sky itself But the stars burned
brighter and brighter. until it almost
seemed they sang:
''Harping in loud and solemn choir
With inexpensive notes.
The words projected themselves
quite unsought into his mind He
spent a moment or two, wondering
where they came from, and then 1t
came to him. 1t was a part of two
lines from the Hymn on the Ma
tivity''
Somehow, the thought Of Christmas
gave his soul wrench that brought
it back into the world again. They
had lost their reckoning of time, and.
for aNythng he knew. this might be
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
DIS lar dS lHdL lie was ny ing uOWu W
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 a 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 it. 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-