The Tupelo journal., 1912-05-03

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here and satisfying his sharp hunger
With an enormous meal. But he had
not sle-t at all the night before, and
now the warmth and the satisfaction
Of his appetite made his nerveless
hand release the bone he was gnaw.
ing, and caused him to roll over be-
side the fire and to fall asleep.
He slept deeply for a number OF
hours. Then, arming himself with q
throwing-stick and a NUMBER Of darts.
he stepped outside the cave, intent
upon his expedition to the other side
OF the peninsula where there was q
possibility of finding the yacht.
The cave was situated some little
distance up the glacier. and the
shortest, though by far the more diff.
ficult, way Of reaching his destination
lay, not along the beach but up
through the interior valley and across
the precipitous coast range OF hills.
1t was not the natural wa to 60.
but the fact that Il was actually short
or gave him a sort of excuse for avoid
ing another visit, just now, to the
scene Of his discontinue of the night
before. He swore at himself, not SO
much for taking this course as for the
reasons which his common sense al
legged against him.
\ His present route took him close
to the gold ledge, and the sight Of the
inexhaustible, precious, useless metal
that remained here brought upon him
for the first time, In full force, q
sense of his loss, a sense of what that
luckless trip ashore from the Aurora
in search of that rosewood box a.
cost him. :
! At an increased pace he descended
from the glacier, crossed the valley
and scaled the landward side OF n
of the mountains OF the coast range,
to a notch. where he could command
IN view. of the sea to the westward.
He saw there what, in the bottom OF
his mind, he had all along been sure
he would see-nothing but another
barren, bleak horizon.
At that, for a while, his fortitude
broke down, and he raved and wept
and cursed like one demented. But at
last, spent, sobered, conscious once
more of a sharp hunger, he climbed a
little farther up the mountain to a
hedge, where, as his minute knowledge
of the country led him to expect, he
found a number of looms sitting. He
killed enc of these birds with a dart.
and then, like the brute he was, ate It
raw and warm.
BY that time 1t was late in the aft
ternoon. Bravado, combined with a
more real belief than he had yet sue
ceeded in retaining, to the effect that
,all his terror of the night before had
resulted from nothing more serious
than q nightmare, led him to decide to
go home by way Of the beach. rather
than along the difficult interior rail
up which he had come.
The descent from the clif-head to
che beach was nothing to a man of his
Inhuman strength and activity, though
an ordinary skilled mountaineer might
have hesitatsd before attempting 1t.
Nevertheless, two-thfrds Of, the way
down he nearly fell-but for luck he
would have fallen, for he caught a
glimpse of a lonely figure, a quarter Of
mile away, perhaps, seated upon a
ledge. bending forward, chin in hand.
in an attitude which recalled. and
horribly echoed, that Of the mar he
l0pu 49, baJ yoUrdorad - =
-. When he had steadied himself a lit
tie, he made his way cautiously down
to the level of the beach. His emotions
were divided about equally between
fear and anger, the anger existing be-
of the fear.
With infinite caution he approached
that lonely, unsuspecting figure, slip
ping from the shelter of q rock to
that of one a little nearer
Three times his left hand drew back
the throwing-stick, balanced and
aimed along a line that would send fts
thin ivory dart as swiftly and as sure
" to that beautiful throat as the one
that had found and transfxed Perry
Hunters; and three times his mus
cles braced themselves for the effort
to propel 1t. But each time, with a
breathless oath, he lowered the
weapon again, and with the back OF
his hairy hand wiped the sweat from
his forehead.
The act had none of the quality OF
mercy in It; 1t was simply the result
OF q logical dilemma. If the thing he
saw before him were q ghost, the
ghost of TIC man he had already MUIR
dered, hi9dart would do no harm. II
It were not a ghost; # 1t were what 1t
looked more and more like a. he drew
nearer. a living, breathing woman-he
licked hts lips and wrung them with
mis- handz-if IT were = woman, he did
not want to kill her. II he could be
sure. could only be sure, he would
drop his weapon and make one rush
and hold her helpless in those great
hands OF. his.
And with every rye PAGES that
,acssened the distance between them,
that certainty grew upon him. No,
she was no immaterial spirit Of q man
long dead. She was alive; warm. He
was near enough now to make out the
xost ca,rve of her throat. the retreat