The evening world., 1914-02-23
he might have been alone In that ex.

as II u had been only what he had
expected. but he sighed rcgretfuliy.
lie had once known. and u was only
four years ago. that same swaggering
trick OF contemptuous authority him.
self He had been master, tho most
tyrannicai sort OF master, some say,
TO be found anywhere in tho world;
the captain OF an American whaler.
And this very man. nt whose heels
he was scranbliny along over the Ice,
had been one OF hts crew: had never
approached the quarter deck. where
he rctgncd supreme, without an
apologetic hand at his forelock. and
had always passed To tho leeward
side OF him up on the deck.
But the Walrus had been destined
never to SEQ port again. Sho fingered
too long on the whaling grounds &c
get back through Behring Strait that
fall; and failed In tho attempt to
mako Mckenzie Hay. whore other
whalers In similar plight put In for
the winter. Instead OF this friendly
harbor. sho was caught In the pack
and carried. relentlessly. north and
westward. Tho milling pressure OF
great masses OF Ice crushed In her
stout hull. 10 that the open water
they had been hoping for became. at
once. their deadlicst peril. Tho
mOmonS tno ice OrOke away euo
wIuld ~ " the bottom like . plum
met.
but still. the slow. irreystibis drift
of the ice-pack carried them north
and west into \ latitude and iongi-
tude which. "a far as they know. no
human travellers had ever crossed
before. And then In the depth Of
the Arctic night. bereft Of hope, and
half mutinous. they found land that
mover had been charted. and. most
marvellous Of all. q human welcome.
For here on tho shore wero Capt.
Fielding and tho two other survivors
Of his Inflated expedition.
Tho fate Of the explorers ship had
been, II seemed. precisely that Of the
Walras. She had been caught In the
pack. crushed In Il and carried against
this coast. Before tho coming OF
spring. and with II the breaking oi
the ice, Fielding ana his men had
been ablc to carry their stores ashore
and Of these tho greater part stiii re-
OF the wairus people. In all. there
were eleven. and these. with the orig
prospect Of an indefinite number oi
years upon that namsless coast. I'VE
can live like Christians" Capt. Field.
ING had said. and We can always
hope"
His superior knowledge Of Arctic
conditions made him. rather than
Capt Planck. naturally. Commander
, OF the little company. Ho established
the regimen Of their life, doled Out
the stores from day 70 day and. a
best he could. through that long win
Ter night. provided entertainment for
The forlorA little group. He told them
nj -
the lay OF tho land. OF what they
might hopo TO aea whom the sun
should come back 90 them, marking
the beginning Of another long Arctic
Among other things quito casually
he told them OF ledge In the hills
acr0ss the glacier which contained,
he believed. the most extraordinary
deposit Of goid In tho world. 30 In.
crsdibly rich was II that the rock Il.
self had almost been replaced by sol
ID metal. The Alaska gold. he said.
was only the swceptnRs. In his opin-
ion. Of this immense store.
At the sound Of the word gold"
the eyes OF the man named Roscoe
, had frightened for the FIRST time since
they had taken him. shiverinx from
his long immersion In the cold wa
ter. aboard the Walrus. He drew
Into tho circle that sat about tho
reading lamp. and began asking quea-
tlons. Gold was something he knew
about. He had mincd II In Australia.
in California and In the Klondikc. He
questioned Capt. Fielding about the
exact whereabouts Of tho ledge. about
the sort Of orc II occurred In and
about the best means Of cutting Il out.
To some extent his own excitsmsnt
tao. AAA AA ~
Planck, whose only well understood
form Of wealth was whale blubber. be-
gan to take an interest In Roscoe's
questions and In the explorers an
swers 10 them.
II was q strange and rather pa
thetic sort OF excitement, Capt. Field
Ing thought. To them. In their prac-
tically hopeless plight. gold was about
the least useful thing they could find;
not hard enough to tip iances or ar
rows with. too heavy and too costly
melted for dopestic purposes, How
ever. II gave them something 10 think
about, and he, without a suspicion Of
the sinister direction In which these
thoughts might turn. went on and told
them all he knew.
When. after u period OF tantalisinR
twilight, the sun again came fairly up
over the horizon. they besought their
commander, with savage sort Of
eagerness from which he might have
augured III. that he take them at once
to the ledge. They had caught sight
OF II from distance. even az Cayiey
had done. hung In the air above the
valley. and had run rccklessly on
ahead Of their leader. When he came
up To them he found them dangero usiy
excited. the man Roscoe fairly daxed
and drunken with Il.
Finally Fielding had left them 10
their own devices, and came away
with his two companions. And until
tho light Of that short day had be-
gun TO fail. they the Wairus people
stayed. gloating over this strangely
useless treasure
For three days after that the man
roscoe never spoke word on tho
fourth day. when the little party as
sembled for their mid day meal. the
eleven men Of tho Walrlis were the
only ones to answer the summons
Capt. Fielding ana his two com.
panions had disappeared.
capt. Planck could not recall that