The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1911-04-27

When. after . period OF tantalizins
twilight. the sun again came fairly
over the horizon. they besouSht their
commander. with . savage sort q
eagernsss from which he might have
ausured i'll. that he take them At
once to the ledge. They had caught
sight of II from . distance. even A.
Cayley had done. hung in the air
above the valley. snd had run reck-
lsssly On ahead Of their leader. WheA
he came up to them. he found them
dangerously excited. the man Roscoe
fairly dassA and drunken with 1t.
Finally Fielding had lsft them 70
their ova lsviess. and came away
With his two compaaious. AAd until
the light Of that short day had begun
to fail. thsy-ths Walrus psople-
stayed. gioating over this strangely
useless treasure.
For three days after that the maa
Roscoe never spoke . word. On the
fourth day. whom the little party ~
semblsd for their midday meal, the II
men Of the Walrus were the only
ones to answer the summons. Cap
tain Fielding and his two companions
had disappeared.
Captain Planck could not recall that
meal now without shuddsring. for
there At the foot Of the table, oppo.
site to him, had sat the man Roscoa,
with murder written plata In every
line Of bis face. He had looked .
beast, rather than . man, that day.
The ssted blood lust in his eyes made
them positively terrifying. 20 that the
others shrank away from him. He
had seemed not to notice Il, at least
not to take o6snss At It He was IN
hilarious spirits for the nrst time
since they had Known him: seemed
really to try to BE- . good companion.
Captain Planck abdicated his lead.
ership that day. He was perfectly
conscious Of the fact. He had known
that to retain the leadership he must
take that murderer out and execute
him. He knew that II he did not do
this. the murderer. not he, would here
after command the party. and that
unless he himself yielded the prompt
est obedience Of any. hs would follow
the luckless trio whom they were
never to see again.
From that day to this there had
been no more murders. Roscoe had
ruled them with = decision and .
turbulence which put anything like
insubordination out Of the question.
He had been obeyed better than Cap
tain Planck ever had been. He had
worked them nercely all those four
years. cutting. everlastingly, at that
wonderful. exhautless golden ledge,
beating the friable ore out Of It with
heavy mauls. then, laboriously. con-
veying the great rude slabs of pure
metal on rough slsdges over the per
petual ice of the glacier to q cave
near the shore, where they had d.
posted 1t. There were literally tons
Of 1t hidden there when the smoke
from the yachts funnel was flrst seen
on the horizon.
The moment the news Of the ap.
preaching steamer was reported to
Roscoe. he had entered upon what
seemed to his followers . thoroughly
irrational and inexplicable line of 40
tion. He had ordered them, nrst, to
remove all signs of recent habitation
from the hut to the cave where their
gold was concealed: then. to cover the
cave mouth with q heap of boulders
to secure IT against discovery.
Long before the strongest glass on
the ship could have made out their
moving figures, he took the whole
party back to the hills In hiding He
had kept them from answering the
halls and the gun-nre from the yacht
by the sheer weight Of his authority,
without vouchsanng a word of expla,
nation.
The next day they had seen the
searching party come ashore, and with
their knowledge Of the lay Of the
land found 1t perfectly easy to evads
observation, though nothing but the
strong habit Of obedience kept them
from counting 1t.
Then. along In tho afternoon. had
happened what seemed to them tho
strangest thing Of all. They had seen
- ooA'No'y oSi o08iCl AIom lAO 8cAICus
ing party coming along across the
Ice. He could not see them. 1t would
have been perfectly easy to evads
him, but Roscoe now ordered them
to go down to him and tell him who
they were. and to offer to escort him
along the trail down the glacier. And
at certain point they were to lag
behind and let him 10 on alona That
was all any Of them knew of their
plans. till they saw the flying
dart and the smudge Of crimson on
the snow.
Now. at last, came Planck to the
leader, asking the reason why But
his mission. as II appeared. had not
CTo BE CONTINUED)