Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1911-05-18
CHAPTER II-continued.

Cayley could not contradict her
and he saw there was little need Of
trying to do so. She had spoken sim
ply, and very gravely, but it was evi
dent the years had not taken the stins
out of her grief.
He told you where he was?" he
asked.
"Oh, quite exactly" she told him;
"he gave us latitude and longitude,
and mapped the coast-line. So you
were wrong, you see, in what you said
about photographers. And he gave us
the route by which with reasonable
fortune, we might find open water.
We had good fortune and we got here
safely, but, Of course, we were too
late. The hut on the shore there ia
deserted. We have seen no signs of
life at all. The men have gone ashore
to search, and there is to be a gun-ire
If they find anyone alive. But they
have been out all day and there has
been no sound. You will understand,
I think, though, why l did not want to
sleep tonight in my cabin in the
yacht; why the ice and the dome of
stars seemed better"
YES" he said, II understand"
Presently, after a moments musing.
he added, What seems strange to me,
lncomprehensible altogether, is, that
men like your father, and so many
others, should risk and lose their lives
trying to reach the pole"
You can't understand that" she
questioned surprised, you, nan
with WINGS"
Il suppose it's because of the
wings" he answered her. 81 slept
there once, early this summer-slept,
and rested, and ate a meal"
There" she echoed in%credulously.
where do you mean"
AT the pole, or within a half degree
Of 1T won't guarantee my instru-
ments, nor my hit-and-miss observa-
lions any more accurately than that
and it seemed a poor place to risk
ones life trying to reach. lust the
~tce-pack-the eternal ice-pack; moth
Ing but that" Then his eyes lighted
q little. But 1 should like to go there
some time. in the winter-should like
to fly straight ahead, for hours and
hours, through the long dark, until 1
could see the North Star squarely
above my head in the zenith, the cen
ter of all the universe. That would
be a sight worth having, 1 should
think. Some day, perhaps, 1 shall try
for it. And then one could go straight
on across-a week or ten days would
do it all-from Dawson City, say, to
st. Petersburg"
: Dawson City to St. Petersburg!"
h repeated; "only a creature of
wings could put those two cities in
the same sentence, even in magma
ton. And even with you it must be
imaginary. You couldn't do it, really
could you?"
Yes" he said; 81 could do it."
You're tireless, them" she asked.
"You would go on flying, flying, with
cut rest. for a week."
Il don't fly" he told her, cor hardly
at all. The birds don't fly, not these
great sea birds that live on the wing.
They sail; SO do l."
but, then, don't you have to go
with the wind?"
You've sailed a boat, haven't you?"
he asked by way of answer. You put
I'D a sail to catch the breeze. and
then o make it force YOU boat right
up into it; make your boat go against
the wind, by the force of the wind
itself. That was regarded as a mir
ccle once when men first did It,"
"Of course" she admitted, "but you
CO that by lacking"
That's the way 1 do it-by lacking,
and the force of gravity is my heel"
How long have you lived like
this?" she asked abruptly.
Really lived? Only three months
or so. l spent the better part of five
years learning to fly"
And you have flown all over the
world?"
"All over this most deserted patch
OF it."
There was another silence. Then
she said: And what a contempt you
must have for us-for us, poor wing
less creatures, who cannot cross a lit
tie assure in a rock or a bit of open
water without such toilsome labor.
Yes, that must be the feeling-con-
tempt; it could hardly be pity"
IF that's true" he rejoined quickly,
ats only poetic justice. I've only
achieved toward the world the feeling
which the world held for me-"
The words were spoken harshly,
abruptly, as if his memory had just
tasted something intolerably bitter.
The manner of the words, no less
than the sense Of them startled her.
and she checked a movement to turn
and look into his face. Instead, b
tried to recall It SIS it had looked
when she had first stood confronting
him. before the twilight had faded.