The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1912-02-09

your fathers name-'Captain Field
ing it sounded Hike that"
She went quite white, and reeled .
little. Then clutched It The shyouds
for Support The old gentlenas was
at her side in an instant, his strong.
steadying arm aeross her shoulders.
Tom himself hah rose from his chair,
only to drop back into 1t again with .
sYimace Of pain and . little dow Of
Precipitation op his forehead. He
looked rathss White himself under the
tan.
Il suppose"-ths girl said almost
voicelessly, Il suppose mustn't dare
--sven let myself begin to hope yet,
must !, not-yet?'
II don't know" said Tom. 1.-THE fel-
low seemed half.crased; seemed, al
most, to have lost the power Of speech
from long disuse Of 1t. But he meant
to take w sdnewhere. that was clear
enough from his gestures. II could
only have seen you before I began to
blurt the thing out I'd have spared
you the suspense until there was some
thing to tell. I'm sorry. jeanne"
Its queer" she said, at the END Of
q rather long silence I'm sure there
was no Portuguese in fathers expedA
ton Except for two or three Swedes
and Norwegians, they WE'RE all Amer
leans. | know the name of every. man
who sailed in his ship"
HE might have taken some one on
at st. Michaels," suggested the elder
Fanshaw.
"Yes,"E she said a little obviously,
"only he never thought much of south
ern Europeans as sea-faring men"
There was another silence after
that. She rose presently and began
sweeping the shore line with pris-
matte binocular which was slung
across across her shoulders. The two
men exchanged chances behind her,
the elder, one of inquiry, his son, a
reluctant negative. No. 1t would
clearly be insane to build any hope on
the incident.
At last she let the glass fall from
her listless hand and turned to them,
her face haggard with the torture Of
impossible hope. II wish my sky
man would come"-she said forlornly,
"come whirling down out Of the air.
with news Of them"
Your sky-man?" said Tom Fanshaw
Questioningly.
Here was something to talk about
at last, and the old gentleman seized
the chance it afforded.
"Yes. we've another mystery" he
said See what you can do toward
solving it." With that for an introduc-
ton, he plunged into a humorous ac-
count of Jeanne's report of her ad-
venture of the night before, of the man
who had dropped down from the sky, liz
the middle of the night, and talked to
her awhile, and then flown away again
She was really out on the ice floe,"
he said; 80 much | concede; but
when | assure her that she dreamed
the rest, she is skeptical about my ex-
PLANTATION"
But even you can't explain" she
protested, how / could dream about
an Eskimo throwing stick, and then
bring it back to the yacht with me
when was wide-awake, and show 1T
to you at the breakfast table this
morning
"Ill have to admit" said the old
gentleman, that my explanation
doesn't adequately account for that"
The expression of the younger
mans face was perplexed rather than
incredulous.
But, my boy" cried the elder man.
think of it! He comes down out of
the sky and says he just dropped in
from Point Barrow; and that's 500
miles away. That's just as impossible
as it would be to materialize an Eski-
mo throwing stick out of a dream,
very bit"
NO, hardly that" said Tom judici-
ally. What was his aeroplane like?
What was it made Of? Did you notice
it particularly"
Yes" she said; II helped him fold
it up. 1t was made of bladdcrs and
bamboo and ca.gut, he said
"And his MOTOR" cried Tom What
was his motor like?'
There was no motor at ALL" she
SAID; lust wings
There you see, Tom" interrupted
his father, absolute moonshjne
But still the younger man shook a
doubtful head No" he said, the
things not impossible inconceiy-
able at least The big birds can fly
that far, and think nothing Of it.
The CID man snorted: They're
built that way Think of the immense
strength Of their wing muscles"
Not so enormous said the young
er man. Il dissected> the wing of an
aibatross once to see. It's not by
main strength they keep aioat in the
air; it's by catching the trick of it."
That's what he said" the girl cried
eagerly. He told me he could fly
across the north pole, from Dawson
City to ST. Petersburg, and when !
asked him if he could keep flying, fly
ing all the time like that, he said the
I. L H.