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

the sight or neT Hlduc IL h"io ~
him to stick to his maps But present
ly he looked up with a sudden ques'
| ton. "Do you happen to find any
| thing" he began, and then broke on
shortly.
From her face, half-shaded as 1t
was, he could see that what she had
been reading just then was no mere
description Of this land upon which
they had been cast away, but some
thing far more personal to the father
she had lost here.
There's something perfectly terri
tying she said, about fathers de-
scription of this man Roscoe. over
here near the end, before the sun
came back to them, he tells OF going
out for a walk by himself and of dis
covering hat Roscoe was stalking
him, in the hope, he thought, of dis
covering, In advance OF the others,
where the gold ledge was. In the twi-
light, father says, he looked, in his
white bear-skins, perfectly enormous
and incredible. And Philip
She closed the book, holding it tight
in both hands, and leaning forward a
IlIllC dc oLC "CAI oAy - 80 AN~
description sounds-oh, l suppose it's
silly, but it sounds like the thing l
thought l saw today when I was alone
there on the beach, before you came
flying down out of the sky. 1t didn't
look like a bear. 1t wouldn't have
been 80 dreadful If it had"
TITS possible. he said gravely, ut
may have been he whom I frightened
off when I came down asst night. Ger
ta1nly there was somebody, and that
somebody may still be here on shore,
though l supposed he had gone out to
join in the attack on the yacht. But
hat we could have passed a whole
day without encountering him"
The girl shivered; then. with a
shake of her head as if Diminishing the
uncanny thought from her mind, said:
You started to ask me about some
thing else, and I Interrupted"
1t took him a moment to collect his
thoughts. "Oh, yes. There's some
thing marked here on this map which
/ took at first for the location of the
hut, but it appear now that it was
marked before they built it. l wonder
If, in the early pages of the journal,
formation about here like a cave,
or"
She made as If to pen the book,
then, suddenly, changed her intention
and held it out to him, instead.
Il haven't been playing fair" she
said. Il wasn't really looking for any
thing. l was just reading stories and
dreaming over them. It's his hand
writing, I think, that makes it so hard
to be good. It's-well, almost like
hearing his voice. Won't you work
the book and the maps and give me
to do-with my hands, I
mean?-oh, I know I'm tired, but that
matter"
Cay1ey-s first impulse was to refuse,
but it needed only n thoughtful look
into her face to convince him that the
as we'll as the wisest, thing
was % do as she asked. An uncanny
horror Of the monstrous Roscoe and
the appalling idea that he, and per
haps others of his gang, might be
the solitude Of this frozen
coast with them was plainly to be
read in her eyes, and her own pre-
scr1ption for ~dispelling 1t was prob
ably the best that could be thought OF.
With a nod of assent, he rose and
into the storeroom, returning the
next moment with an armful of heavy
"In the old days of wooden ships"
said, when they wanted to discf-
pine a sailor, they set him to picking
oakum. Next to pounding rust off the
anchor, it's the dullest job in the
world. But we need some for calking
the cracks in our walls. Do you
mind?"