Evening star., 1935-12-29


man. His ears were frostbtten and only the
sternest self discipline kept him from absolute
panic.
Ilderkirk had not used guide in years.
Guides called for additional money, better
spent for more trips afield. Actually he was
competent woodsman, but this time crcum-
stances had so combined against him that
unless he could find his camp or get food he
would perish before another day passed.
Ilderkirk knew where he had blundered;
there is always blunder when man gets
lost. 1t just so happened that this blunder -
he told himself - might be his last. He had
not wandered in circles; that was only for the
veriest novice. When he realized the storm
was upon him, and that he had missed his
way, he had estimated his position as accu-
rately as possible Then he had maintained
straight line by frequent check on his COM
pass. But he had overshot his camp.
Against the danger and hardship of the
blizzard it had seemed the right thing to try
for shelter even after dark. 1t must be very
close. With morning he did not know whether
camp was north south, east or west. and
when he looked at the sensitive needle quiver-
ing toward the magnetic pole he knew that
without knowledge of his position with
reference to his camp it was utterly useless to
him. Given food and matches and his sleeping
robe he could of course get himself out of the
wilderness whether he found his camp or not,
but that was impossible now.
1t could not be that he, Matthew Ilderkirk,
would perish in the woods. There was grim
sort of fatalism that the end should come
when he was trying to determine whether or
not the trumpeter swan was extinct. He, who
had fought the battle of the swans for more
than thirty years and who had finally sue
ceeded in arousing public and government
interest in the vanishing waterfowl -.
His ears ached beyond all endurance where
he had rubbed them with snow. If he might
lie down for little while - just little
while. He thrust the temptation away and
marked out four angles in his mind, to travel
on them throughout the day. First he must
find porcupine, the only animal he could
hope to kill with stick. He had no gun.
AS he set his first course he stumbled out of
line of trees and saw before him small
spring hole. He stopped and passed his hand
across his eyes, then fumbled for the monoc-
ular that always rested in his shirt pocket.
Two magnificent white birds rested on the
unfrozen surface of the pool. The bill and
lores Of each were entirely black. They were
trumpeters
In spite of his desperate plight nderkirk
knew the thrill of discovery. Here was the
end of his quest. 1t had been five years since
Ilderkirk had seen trumpeter swan. His
throat ached. Was this the way death ap-
preached? A vision. :.
Of course they were not real. They could
not be. He stood in plain view of the birds,
within scant seventy yards. Were they
trumpeters they would have fought to get
away. AS it was they only eyed him. Trun1-
peters were the shyest of birds, they would
never rest thus and permit his intrusion.
He opened his miniature camera and set
the telephoto lens. With fumbling almost
frozen fingers he snapped picture after picture
until the roll of films was exhausted. What
fool he was! The negatives would show moth
CONTINUED on page IS)