The Tupelo journal., 1912-05-17
CHAPTER XIX.
Roscoe.

Roscoe had never been able to clear
up his doubt as to Jeanne's identity,
Dor to solve the mystery of Cayley's
appearance in the air. The doubt
n the mystery tormented him worse
han any final conviction could have
done. When he thought, as he some
dmes did. that the cause of all his
;error, the thing which kept him
oenned up here in the cav and de-
1led him access to more than the fur
tive edges Of the beach, might be just
! rather d~efenseless human couple. a
man and a woman, and the woman
beautiful, young, alluring-when he
thought Of all hat he would go of
Into transports of rage, which left
even his gigantic body limp and ex-
hausted. If that were the situation,
he might have killed the man weeks
ago and taken possession of the
Qua ~s---~-~
The thing that kept him san was,
In itself, a species of insanity, the pas
murder Captain Fielding. Every day
he tramped up the glacier to the gold
ledge and there, while the light lasted.
he worked, cutting the precious metal
out Of the rock, and with infinite labor
beating 1t pure.
along, this UNMARRIED routine more than
compensated for the solitude and the
terrors his superstition thrust upon
him, and gradually restored him to his
old normal, formidable, brutal self.
On the day when he made the discovery
that was to terminate the long series
of golden days which Jeanne and
Philip had been enjoying, he was.
again, the very man who, during those
long years of exile, had dominated
crew and captain Of the Walrus and
bent them to his will.
He was returning from the ledge
along the crown of the glacier, when.
on the day of this discovery, he found
that his accustomed path was inter
rupted by a new assure in the ice; II
had occurred since he had come that
way in the morning, and was too
broad to leap across. So he was forced
Ito descend by the rougher and more
dim track which lay along the
moraine.
Before he had gone three PAGES
along this track his eye made out
something, Just of his patch and a lit
tie below it, which caused him at first
to utter a snarl Of anger. but led him
the next moment to give a wild bias
tphemous yell of Joy.
The great assure which had opened
in the ice had done. In an instant
what the party from the Aurora had
failed to do after hours of hard labor
1T had yielded up the body of Perry
Hunter, which, during all these
months, 1t had kept imprisoned.
Strapped across the dead mans
shoulders, Just where he had carried
It in life, was a rife and around his
middle a belt full of cartridges.
The next instant Roscoe was bend
ing over the body, Jerking savagely
at the frozen buckles which resisted
his impatient fingers. But they were
not to be denied. Il. they were clum-
sy, the hands were strong.
1t was not five minutes later when
Roscoe, rife and ammunition belt in
his hands, was hurrying on toward his
cave once more. The body lay just
where his desecrating hands had left
1t.
The rife was ~uninjured; that he had
seen at a glance, though of course,
all the mechanism of it's breech was
frozen fast. But a half hours hard
work with cleaning rod and rags of
what once had been a shirt, sufaced
to put 1t into commission again.
Then, with the rife over his shout
der, he staggered out of the cave.
y With his first glance abroad, he
z started. His devil was being kind to
him today. There could be no doubt
of that. Only, Was he being too kind?
Roscoe wondered a little uneasdly.
For, stumbling along the ice, through
the thickening twilight, not 100 PAGES
away, was a big bear. Roscoe was
tired of walrus meat. The thought OF
q zeal steak made his mouth water.
Three years disuse, however, had
made his craftsmanship somewhat
uncertain. He fired too soon, and
though he did not miss, the only ef-
feet his shot had was to make the
bear turn about and go shambl1ng
down the glacier toward the beach,
with ungainly haste. Roscoe hurried
after him, and fred two more shots.
I Whether they hit or not, he could not
tell. Certainly they did not serve to
check the bears flight. The next mo-
ment he had rounded the corner OF
the cliff and disappeared down b
beach in the direction Of the hut.
Roscoe hesitated, but only for
moment; then, with ar oath, he set
out In pursuit. It was not 70 much
the protection which the rifle afforded
him that was responsible for this new
courage as it wal that the mere feel
of II in his hands brought him back
in touch once more with the every
day matter Of fact world. and made
his visions and ghosts seem q little
unreal.
II ~as fully dark down here In the