The Tupelo journal., 1912-05-24
CHAPTER XXI.
A sortie.

M
But that did not happen, and !
sudden instinct that something mus,
have gone wrong reached her, with al
most the force of a spoken word.
What is it? What's happened
Philip" she asked, as she turned.
He did not answer at ono He was
bending over the hole formed by the
top of the ice chimney and rather de-
liberately replacing the wooden cover
upon 1t. When he did s~traighten UP
at last, and she saw his face, abe
knew her instinct had not lied to her.
TITS rather a queer thing for N ia
have forgotten" he said, after all
these weeks when we lived In terror
Of him. and after the last thing he did
to us. But we had forgotten him
Roscoe, you know-and nov he has
stolen q march on U.S."
She looked at him in q sort Of won
der.
1T is true she said, I'VE had for
gotten. Those days when we lived
in the hut seemed almost as far away
from us up here as the rest of the
world seemed then. :" She made
a little pause there, then reused her
self. What is it that he has dene,
Philip"
He has found our stores down be-
low here. He has taken everything
made a perfectly clean sweep"
There was a little silence after that.
Before she spoke again she came over
to hin and kissed him. There was a
grave sort of smile on her face when
she said:
We'll, is there anything we must
do?"
"Oh, yes" he said. THAT move Of
his doesn't end the game. 1t only be-
gins a new one. Really, l think, the
odds are more In our favor this time
than they were before. only this time
we shall have to move quickly. l
would have followed him up at once,
without coming back here, only I
didn't have" He stopped rather
short.
"Of course" she said, you hadn't
the revolver"
That wasn't what / wanted; l
wanted my wings. Now I've got back
to them I must start at once"
She uttered a little cry of protest at
that.
Cant you-can't you wait a little
a few hours? Life has only just be-
u for me-for us-with what you
told me just now"
He let a moment go by in thought
full silence, before he answered.
NO." he said, at last, "it's got to
be settled now, before another moon
rise. The light is all in his favor, the
darkness in mine. If / can find him
now, I think l can kill him. Now I
think it over, it seems to me likely
he doesn't suspect we are alive at
all. The Walrus people never dis
covered the ice chimney nor the pilot
house. That's perfectly clear. If they
bad they would have rifed it long
ago.
When finish. I'll cdms back to
you. l don't think I Ghau - gone
very long. You arsn~, 70 te Aez,Al for
me, and you % trust me 10 Be ere
full. ] know ! have your IL IN my
hands as well as my own fAar art
Is harder than mine; I ssA@ Wder
stand that You must be 2eeping
watch every second. II he eludss me
and comes here. you must shoot him.
without word or warning. Shoot to
kill"
but l sha'n't have thA revolver!"
There was an eieetyic moment Of
silence between then. vh1e she gazed
into his face, Mortified At the meaning
she read there.
You didn't mean that! Philip,
Philip-you can't mean that. And
leave you to face that monster I'm.
rped."~axsaass~~ss.~
II shall have the only weapon that
will be of any service to me, my knife.
It's got to be done at close quarters.
l couldn't possibly shoot him from the
come up within striking distance he
will have no chance with me, not with
all bis strength"
NO" she said, resolutely, II won't
let you go. Not that way"
Listen, Jeanne. If l can find him,
l can kill him. Do you know what the
movements of ordinary men, even un-
usually quick men, look like to me?
Like the motions of marionettes. The
only chance Roscoe has against me Is
of picking me off at long range with
his rife. He could do that whether
I had a revolver or not. And If he did,
if he killed me and l had the revolver.
then-well, then he would come here
and find you-defenseless. Don't you
see? / couldn't take the revolver. !
should be %unnerved with terror from
the moment l left you"
With a sob she clasped her arms
about his neck and held him tight.
Then, in tragic submission, they
dropped away.
Without saying anything more, Cay
ley blew put the candle, opened the
door into the tunnel and took up his
furled wings. With trembling hands
she helped him spread them and draw