Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-06-15
XVI.
EootnrlntS.

Footprints.
Nature had nothing to do with the
formation of It, SO much was clear
enough. It had been cut out by hand,
and evidently with infinite labor.
Flashing his bull's-eye over 1t did
not enable him to see the end of it,
but 1t did reveal a series of notches
running straight up the two opposite
surfaces. The only purpose they could
serve would be to make possible the
ascent of the chimney.
Jeanne followed his gaze, and then
the two looked at each other, com
pletely puzzled.
Some one must have made it," she
said; land 1t must have been fright
fully hard to make-a tunnel right up
through the ice like that. But what
in the world can they have made 1t
fort"
I've no idea," he confessed, "but it
goes somewhere, and I mean to find
out where"
Don't follow 1t too far" she eau
toned. ut would only need one foot
slip off one Of those icy notches to
bring about a d%readfully ugly fall"
Zone couldn't fall far down a tube
Of that diameter, unless he had COM
pletely lost his nerve, for there's al
ways a chance to catch ones self. And
you're to remember that I'm used to
falling. No, I'll be as safe up there as
l would on a turnpike. Yes, really"
With that and a nod of reinsurance,
he scrambled up into the mouth of the
long chimney. He had taken his
bull's-eye with him, SO the girl was
left in the dark. She dropped down
on the heap Of bear skins to wait for
him.
She had no means of measuring the
time, and 1t seemed a perfectly in
| terminable while before she heard
Cayley returning down the ice chin
ney. Had she known how long it real
ly was, she would have been justified
in feeling seriously worried about aim.
but not knowing, she attributed the
| seeming duration Of his delay to the
tedium of sitting in the dark, with
nothing to do. Even at that, she was
| conscious Of a feeling of relief when
she heard him call out to her once
more, cheerfully, albeit somewhat
holloway, from the chimney's mouth:
Jeanne, where are your"
Here, just where you left me-"
"Here! Ali the while! You must
DO half frozen. I've been gone the
better part Of an hour"
II didn't know how long it was, and
I 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.
Me dropped down, with a rather ex-
| plosive sigh, upon one of the hunks,
and poked tentatively at his thighs
and shoulders as If they were numb
with fatigue.
Il think by a reasonable estimate"
he said. that chimney is five miles
high. / kept going and going and go
ing, till l began to believe that there
wasn't any end to 1t; or that, by some
magic or other, l slipped down a
yard as often as l went up n e But
| did get to the end at last; and Ill
give you a thousand guesses al to
what | found there"
THE observatory" she hazarded.
ooh! but not really? I did not mean
that for an honest guess at all. 1t was
| Just 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, l don't be-
lieve they did," he answered with
mocking seriousness. tits more like
ly that they took 1t to pieces, and then
rugged a boom and tackle up at the
cliff-head and hauled it up outside.
But when they got 1t up there they
J put it together again right across the
lssure, and then t~unnelled down, or
up, the whole depth of the clifr. 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 must
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 and
frozen in. It's buried, ] don't know
how many feet deeu by this time, and
dark. ri Mrse- 10 . pocket But