The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1912-04-12

upon MS nina leBS. lHeu NAyley
fired twice, the shots coming SO close
ly together as to be hardly distinguish
able One or both of them took in
Simultaneous effect. The great yellow
ish-white mass tottered forward, and
collapsed in heap only pace or two
from where Philip was standing.
He waved his hand at the girl. and
walked back for his wings. When
| she met him, half way up the beach,
he was carefully taking the spent
shells out of his revolver, one at q
time, and depositing them in his peck
ct. mo telling how they may prove
useful" he commented; then, with a
quick look irto her face, II hope you
weren't frightened when you saw me
run"
II suppose / shouldn't have been.
bqS. ~ have to confess that ! was.
You weren't trying to get away from
him. or you wouldn't have run in that
direction. But 1t looked rather dread
full. just the same. Why did you
do I'll"
I'VE were too far down the beach,
too near the waters edge before. 1t
was too late to skin him and cut him
up tonight, and was afraid II storm
were to come up before morning. a
really big storm, we might lose him
It was lot easier to get him up the
beach before l fred those last two
shots than It would have been after.
! thought at first of running toward
the hut. It occurred to me, only just
in time, that there was no use in ma,
king an abattoir Of our front yard"
They had reached the hut, and as he
finished speaking, they entered it.
Even Philip caught his breath rather
suddenly with that first glance about
its transformed interior. The drift
wood fire, which glowed upon the
hearth, filled the whole room with
light, and bathed the walls and rafters
with warm colors.
Here was their fortress against the
cold and the dark; a fortress, too.
against despair. That rude hearth
which he had built today was to be
their altar OF nope.
The girl stood looking at it a mo-
ment in silence, her lips pressed tight
together, one outstretched hand CROP
ing for the door-jamb behind her. as
If she wanted the support Of some,
thing. Even in this warm freight
she looked a little pale. By an evil
dent effort of will she was breathing
very deep and steadily. She did not
try to speak.
Cayley understood well enough what
il meant. This place that they had
come back to for the night was home
now, probably the last home she would
ever have In the world, II one were to
balance the chances fairly. It's warmth
and light and comparative comfort
did more to enforce realization Of
their tragic plight than anything be-
fore had done. The thing she was
fighting with was sudden wave OF
plain terror.
Cayley went out into the little YES
thule and closed and bolted the outer
door He contrived to waste minute
or two over the trifiing task. in order
to give her that moment by herself.
When he came back, closing the in
ner door behind him as he did so, he
found that she had taken off her cap
and the heavy cur coat which had en-
numbered her shoulders all day, and
hung them upon a convenient wooden
peg in the wall She was standing
near the fireplace now, warming her
cold fingers at the blaze.
Cayley started a little at sight OF
her, for row she was transformed,
too Standing there, silhouetted
against the. blaze, in her gray cardi-
gan jacket and moleskins, she looked
like a young boy He had discovered
before this that there was not grain
of false modesty about her; neverthe-
less, it pleased him when. with GER
tain charming frank simplicity she
called his attention to her costume.
Its lucky thing" she observed,
that I dressed for a scramble over
the ice before coming ashore with
Uncle Jerry and Mr. Scales. And
lucky too, that didn't change back
when we returned to the Aurora. l
left 1t the second time with no other
idea than of pulling about for awhile
in the dinghy I'd have done that just
the same II / had dressed for dinner
that night, as l usually did"
yes he said. "A skirt would
have been a. pretty serious matter to
people in our situation"
Show me the rest Of our house"
she commanded presently. This Is
the only room I've seen.'
The subdivision Of the hut was ac-
complished by an Lshaped partition
seven feet or SO from the outer
wall, around two sides Of it. It
yielded two tiny, cubical bedrooms
THAT was the purpose which the
wooden bunk in each Of them
indicated) and third room OF
the same width (about seven feet).
but running the entire length Of the
side Of the hut nearest the cliff This
room had evidently served for stores
and for kitchen, since part of the