The Tupelo journal., 1912-05-10
CHAPTER XVIII.
An Attack.

An Attack.
The fact that their enemy was
lone and that he was Roscoe himself
as responsible for the conviction
nat Cayley's wings we're all that
TODD between them and an attack.
10 terror attributable to human
auses would have held back that
olitary and altogether desperate out
asst.
The thing in the situation which
aused Cayley the most uneasiness
Tas the fear that some time or other
.oscoe would solve the mystery,
yould see him in the very act of
aking to the air. This fear suggested
n ~expedient to him one day as he
Jas flying along near the snow-crest-
d edge Of the cliff.
81 don't know why I never thought
+ 1t before" he said to Jeanne as he
lighted beside her a moment or two
.fterward; but I've got It now--the
way to prevent Roscoe from every
diving the mystery of your guardian
NIGEL. / thought of 1t when saw the
mound up on the clinhead that Is
ormed by the observatory. 1t can't
10 buried so very deep in the snow
because the mound isn't SO very big.
m going up there now to dig 1t out,
enough, at least, SO that ! take
wing from there" ~.
"You never can dig out enough snow
20 get a running start up there" she
objected.
81 sha'n't have to. I'll just dive OF
The cliff"
Phillip, you sha'n't!"
why not?"
you know what you told me your
self. That none of the big birds can
take to the air without a running
start; and about taking pelicers and
birds like that up into high buAdings
and throwing them out of windows,
and how they were always killed"
That's because they've only got
instinct instead of intelligence. None
of their family had ever been thrown
out of windows before, and they didn't
know what to do. But / can get my
start quite as safely that way as any
other. Oh, yes, I've done it. Do you
Imagine, Jeanne dear, that I'd take an
unnecessary risk so long as my life
is the only possible protection there
is for yours?"
He spent the rest of the day tun-
melting out from the observatory. He
did not dig In the snow; he simply
packed 1t, gradually charging the
space from O section the size Of the
pilot house door to a space at the
cliffs edge wide enough for the full
spread of his wings.
Jeanne was watching on the beach
when he made his first flight from
this aerie, and, in spite of her con-
fdence In his powers, she endured .
horrible moment or two. For he came
hurting down, head first, at an angle
of so degrees; and he had traversed
two-thirds of the distance to the beach
before his line detected outward and
began curving up toward the hori-
zontal.
When she saw that he was safe,
that he had really done the thing he
had said he could, she dropped down
upon a bear-skin, which was spread
before the hut, and shut her eyes, for
what she had seen had turned her a
bit giddy.
That feeling passed In a moment.
She opened her eyes and lay, stretch
ed at full length, upon the bear-skin,
watching him as he wheeled and
dipped, then lowered aloft again in
that fading violet sky, supremely
m~asterful, majestically dominant Of
the unstable element he had con-
quered.
She sat up suddenly, erect, upon
the bear skin, with the realization that
1T was nearly dark. Their hours Of
daylight were getting w. scanty
now. Today's allowance was gone, al
Though it was not yet three in the aft
ernoon.
She looked aloft for Cayley, but
could not see him. Then, the lei
moment, she heard the whine of the
air through his rigging, and he sailed
down on a long slant and alighted be-
side her.
He got clear of his planes with an
unaccountable air of haste, and held
tout both hands to help her rise.
what do we do with sentinels who
to sleep on duty?" he questioned
with a laugh.
"I wasn't asleep" she said contrite-
ly, but 1t was just about as bad. /
was thinking She paused there,