Evening star., 1923-10-22

all. Against the rear wall of the tent
she had built a sleeping platform or
driftwood and empty crates. covered
with reindeer skins. Two guns, one
a thirty-forty rifle, hung suspended
from rack over her head. 1t was
cold in the little tent; and through
the rents in the canvas, mist and
fog drifted in. Such was the habita-
tion in which this girl had slept.
eaten, hoped and waited-pray y ing
that help would come.
She busted herself in lighting a
nre while I sat down on. box and
looked about me. ...-
81 sorry I can't give you any
good thing to eat, but / make a lit
tie tea," she said.
1t wasn't long before the fire was
burning brightly and the tent warm
suddenly, and to my intense sur
prise, a gray cat slid out from it's
hiding, place behind box and stepped
sedately over to Ada. who grabbed
IT up In her arms, caressing 1t. talk
ing to it. Victor that was It's name
had been Ada's only companion
since Knights death. and she told
me she believed she would have gone
insane II she hadn't had Vic to talk
to.
Told of Life on Island.
Then, as though she were someone
newly awakened from nightmare.
she began, in d, slightly dazed fash
ION. TO tell me of her life on the
island: how she had cried when the
boys started for Siberia. leaving her
weary days Of illness, when she, as
well as Knight, had been SO weak
ened by scurVy that sometimes she
mad been unable to go to her traps
and was barely able to chop wood
and nurse her sick companion. Her
Voice nhnlgad hn nj rla
glad she was when spring came. My,
was so glad, i just sit down and
cry when j see the first little snow
DuntinEs come from the south in
the spring-but knight he-was
pretty sick then-and all he could eat
was sometimes a little soup-and by
and by-I-I could not save his life
no matter how hard l try-he die
and then me and We've move over
mere In this place"
When ! asked her about Crawford.
Maurer and Gale, she only shook her
head. and said: II don't know-much
how they went away. When they
was loading up the sled I was in
SIDE the tent, crying. and then after
they go it blow wind with plenty
snow drifting and I think they get
lost or maybe break through thin
Ice, but every time before I go to
sleep ] read my Bible and then l
pray to the Lord Jesus, to make
tAoii SOHIc SAFE, anu IHeH NnGH
see your ship j SO glad and ] think
you have those with you and they
are not lost but now I guess they
are gone all right and j won't see
them any more"
Last fall" she went on, I'VE hang up
lantern for ship because IL got pretty
dark at night and we afraid maybe
snip go past US in the might've
could not see any ice and there was
plenty big waves come in from the
south. And then. after q few days
the ice come back and all the ocean
Is white and then we know ship
never come and take down lantern"
Just those few sentences, to tell
OF the desperate hope of those two
and its Illustration.
Ada, OF course, did not know that
Capt. Bernard of the Teddy Bear"
had tried to reach Wrangel Island IN
the summer of 1922. After cour-
ageous attempt to battle his way
through massed ice foes he had re-
turned to Nome because he had not
ter. II was only after he had re-
turned that the ice opened-late in
the fall-and, of course. he had no
way. at Nome. of knowing that If
the Canadian government or public
sympathy only had been aroused last
year to the extent it has this year,
Bernard would have been amply pro-
visioned for spending the winter, and
the grim experiences i have to record
need never have been written.
But there was no time nor reason
Eow for vain regrets. 1 thought of
the ramsnackle tent just a few yards
down the beach and unconsciousiy
began preparing myself for the shock
/ knew was in store for me.
Copyright, 1923. in United States and Canada
by North American Newspaper Alliance.
Continued in Tomorrow's Star.l