Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-04-06

NAVY pOCA h0A0 ~ SuboS1b "A AARA~'S
ment in him, he approached so near
the ideal standards. He was fine
grained, supple, slender, small1ointed,
thoroughbred from head to heel.
Intellectually, he had been good
enough to go through the academy at
West Point with credit, and to grad
uate high enough in his class to be
assigned to service in the cavalry. His
standards of conduct, his ideas of hon
or and morality had been about The
same as those Of the best third Of his
classmates. If his fellow officers in
the Philippines, during the year or
two he spent in the service, had been
asked to pick a flaw in him, which
they would have been reluctant to do,
they would have said that he seemed
to them a bit too thin-skinned and
rather f%astidious; that was what his
chum and only intimate friend, Perry
Hunter, said about him at any rate.
But he could afford to be fastidl-
Gus, for he had about all a man could
want, one would think. For three
generations they had taken wealth
for granted in the Cayley family, and
with 1t had come breeding, security
Of social position, simplicity and ease
In making friends, both among men
and ome In short, there could be
no doubt at all that up to his twenty
ninth year Fate had been ironically
f,I.a - DbVfn HavIav Che hod Uivnn
him no hint, no preparation for the
stunning blow that was to fall upon
him, suddenly, out Of so clear a sky.
When it did fall, 1t cut his life
clean across; so that when he thought
back to that time now, 1t seemed to
him that the Lieutenant Cayley Of the
United States army had died over
r there In the Philippines, and that he,
> the man who was now soaring In those
, great circles through the arctic sky,
was q chance inheritor of his name
and of his memory.
He had set out one day at the head
: of a small scouting party, the best
liked man in the regiment, secure in
: the respect, in the almost fatherly re-
e gard, of his colonel, proudly conscious
b of the almost idolatrous admiration
( of his men and the younger officers.
S He had gone out believing that no
one ever had a truer friend than he
t possessed in Perry Hunter, his class
v mate at West Point, his fellow officer
in the. regiment, the confldant Of all
r his hopes and ideals.
9 He had come back, after a fort
nights absence, to find his name
smeared with disgrace, himself Judged
a and condemned, unheard, in the opin-
ion of the mess. And that was not
the worst of 1t. The same blow which
n had deprived him of the regard Of the
d only people In the world who matter
+ ed to him, destroyed, also, root and
n branch, his affection for the n mar
of whom he had made an intimate,
n The only feeling that 1t would be pos
y sible for him to entertain for Perry
Hunter again must be a Multiplying
half-incredulous contempt. And II
that was his feeling for the man he
had trusted most and loved the mos
deeply, what must be it for the rest Of
humankind? What did it matter whai
they thought of him or what they die
ID to him? All he wanted Of human 80
ciety was to escape from 1t.
a He fell to wondering, as he hung
Id suspended, over that rosy expanse o
70 feecy fog, whether, were the thing tt
70 do over again, he would act as he hat
to acted five years ago; whether h
ia would content himself with a singh
Y: disdainful denial of the monstrouI
st thing they charged him with; whethe
h he would resign again, under fire, an
go away, leaving his furnished nam
he for the DAVIS to peck at.
ne Heretofore he had always answers
that question with a fierce aftirms
gs tive. Today it left him wondering
Iy, Had he stayed, had he paid the pric
ad that would have been necessary t
ID. clear himself, he would never hav
1t, found his wings, so much was cleal
be He would never have spent thos
lid four years In the wilderness, working
experimenting, taking his life In hi
he hands, day after day, while he maste
.er ed the art that no man had ever ma
I'D tered before.
Of He had set himself this task becaus
TT. 1t was the only one he knew that al
1t, not involve contact with his fellow
Id. beings. He must have something this
ed, he could work at alone. Work an
as solitude were two things that he ha
ey felt an overmastering craving for. An
at the possibility he had faced with
light heart every ~morning-the posE
Re bility Of a sudden and violent deal
led before night, had been no more
he him than an agreeable spice to tt
re- days work.
fl It was not until he had actual
ice learned to fly, had literally shaken Il
ne dust Of the earth from his feet al
cal taken to the sky as his abode, that h
he wound had healed. The three mont
ur- that he had spent in this upper arct
air. awning for 16 hours out Of "a, hi
ice Gained him, put his nerves In tul
no again; given him for men and the
or affairs a quiet indifference, in pla
ted of the smarting contempt he had be-
led hugging to his breast before. Thr
months ago, at sight of those lit
- So a.o,cipn fbn oIoptar