The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-10-27

OF the next
Hadn't you better take Jacques
with your" said Late Carscallen-
The Sub-factOr thought 3 moment,
and then said, No, he Is needed
most where he is"
At noon the next day JaspaT Hume
looks round upon a billOwy plain of
sun and ice, but he sees no staff, no
signal, no tent, no sign OF human life,
Of Gaspe ToujoUfs or OF Jeff Hyde.
His strong heart quails- Has he lost
his way2 He looks at the SUM- He
Is not sure. He consults MS compass,
but it quivers hesitatingly, and then
points downward For s while wild
bewilderment, which seizes upon the
minds of the strongest, when lost,
masters him, In spite Of his struggles
against it. He moves IN a maze OF
half blindness, half-delirium- BE Is
lost In it, is swayed by 1t. He begins to
wander about; and there grow upon
his senses strange delights and reellng
agonies. He hears church bells, he
catches at butterflies, he tumbies IN
new-mown hay, he wanders In tropic
garden. But In the hay q wasp stlngs
him, and the butterfly changes to
curling black snake that strikes at
him and glides to q dark flowing river
full of FLOATING ice, and up from the
river q white hand Is thrust, and 1t
beckons him-beckons himl He shuts
his eyes and moves toward 1t, but
voice stops him, and 1t says, Gone
awayl come awayl" and two arms
fold him round, and as he goes back
from the shore he stumbles and falls,
and What is this? A
yielding mass at his feetl A mass that
stirsl He clutches at 1t, he tears away
the snow, he calls aloud-and his
voice has a PARKWAY unnatural sound
Gaspe Toujoursi Gaspe Touioursl"
Yes, it is Gaspe Touioursl And beside
him lies Jeff Hyde, and slivel ay, ahvel
Thank Godl
Jaspar Hume's mind is itself again.
1t had but suffered for q moment what
comes to most men when they recognize
first that they are being Swallowed
by the awful ban of Lost"
Gaspe Touiours and Jeff Hyde had
lain down In the tent the night of the
great wind and had gone to sleep at
once. The staff had been blown down,
the tent had fallen over them, the
drift had covered them, and for three
days they had slept beneath the snow,
never waking
Jeff Hyde's sight was come again TO
him. You've come back for the
book" he said; you couldn't go on
without it You ought to have taken
it yesterday" and he drew 1t from
his bosom
mo, Jeff, I've not come back for
that, and 1 did not leave you yester-
day; it's three days and more since
we parted The book has brought
us luck, and the best We have found
him; and they'll be here tonight with
him I came on ahead to see how
you Jared"
In that frost-bitten world Jeff Hyde
uncovered his head for a moment
"Gaspe Toujours is s papist, he said;
''but he read me some of that book the
day you left, and one thing We went to
sleep on: 1t was that about Lightenin'
the darkness, and defendin' US from
the perils and dangers of this night. !"
Here Gaspe Toujours made the sign
of the cross. Jeff Hyde continued half
apolOgetically for his eomrade, sit
comes natural to Gaspe ToujOurs-I
guess it always does to papists- But
never had any trainin' that way, and
had to turn the thing over and over,
and fell asleep on it. And when 1
wake up three days after, here's my
eyes as fresh as daisies. and you back,
Captain, and the thing done that We
come to do"