The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1912-04-19


!, they still sat face to face across the
board plank which had served them
for table. Cayley leaned forward q
little and. smiling. asked question.
Whats the secret. Jeanne? Your
eyes have been shining with mystery
ever since we sat down here"
She laughed. You're much too pen
etrating. didn't mean you even to
dream there was mystery to pene-
trate. But-well. it's time to tell you
now, any way"
She, too. leaned forward a little and
shook her head at him with tanta-
lizing air of triumph.
you didn't find the thing you were
looking for last night in fathers jour
nal-the place where they hid the
stores, / mean"
"Oh, but did," he cried. II only
waited to give you time to eat nee
essary and sensible breakfast before
spoke of it. / had it on the tip of
my tongue to suggest that we set
about finding 1t in good earnest, when
! saw, in your eyes. that you had a
mystery of your own"
1t was evident from the look in
those eyes now that she was both sur.
prised and puzzled.
You found it last night" she ex-
claimed. Found 1t in the journal,
and then never went to look at it,"
VIII. l found a. Ynmistaksble ref
; erence to it, and though the exact To-
cation wasn't given, it was plain that
three or four hours exploring by day
light would enable us to find it. But
even If l hadn't minded leaving you
asleep here, unprotected in the hut, l
doubt very much if could have found
1t at night But what's the mystery
you were about to reveal to me?"
NO" she said; tell me more about
your discovery first What was the
reference in the journal?"
He rsse and took down from the
shelf the big leather-bound volume
which was proving itself, with every
hour. their greatest treasure.
Its over here, toward the end" he
said, "in that last winter when the
Wairus came-oh, here we are"
He seated himself on the bunk be-
side her, and began to read.
March 10th.-We have just spent
an arduous and fearful week upon
the task of unloading the wreck Of the
whaler. The weather has been severe
10 hrnr
heit being the mildest) and three
quarters of gale blowing most of the
time. The men are inclined to be re-
hallious over my drifting them out te
work in such weather, but | dared not
wait for it to moderate.
when the ice opens rouni the
whaler. she will go down like plum
met; and II that event should have
happened before we unloaded her Of
her stores, our plight would have been
utterly desperate. or stores in the
ordinarily accepted sense, she haG put
scanty suppis, and those of mis-
erably inferior description; but she
contained half a cargo of whale oil in
barrels, which now that they are
landed will sett3e the problem of fuel
for us as long as the last survivor of
sur company can hope to remain alive.
Ard fuel is, after all, the only neces-
sity which this land itself does not
supply us with OF course we shall
have to forego the delights OF bear
steak when our ammunition gives out,
but walruses we can kill with har-
poeas. And with theae and seurvy-
grass, which we gather in the valley
every summer, there is no danger Of
actual starvation.
I'VE hoisted the barrels of blubber
out of the whaler's hold with hand
tackle, sledged them ashore along the
foe and the crown of the glacier to
Moseley's cave, which seemed to be
the most convenient place to store
them temporarily"
Cayley laid down the book and
turned to the girl.
That's the place, I'm perfectly
sure" he said. TT evidently faces
the glacier but it must be very near
the beach, for they wouldn't have
hauled those barrels any further than
necessary
rs that all he says about it?"
Its all he says directly, but there's
q reference just little further along
which made me all the surer l was
right. Let's see"
He opened the book again and ran
hts eye down the page. a hundred
weight or so of spermaceti and two
barrels of sperm oil we took directly
to the hut'-here, this. Is what was
looking for.
1.-The knowledge we get by expert
ence often comes too late to be OF any
great service to US. made some
mistakes in stripping the Phoenix.
which l should not repeatNnow. For
instance, carrying her pilot house,