The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

wm .̂ m cms W,WCW?SE» 9?0 BY THc CeWTimy CO CV 5 HC 4»&rCC£«££ CO '/" A# SYNOPSIS. Philip Cayley, accused of a crime of which he la not guilty, resigns from the army In disgrace and his affection for his friend, Lieut. Perry Hunter, turns to hatred. Cayley seeks solitude, where he perfects a flying machine. While soaring over the Arctic regions, he picks up a curiously shaped stick he had seen In the assassin's hand. Mounting again, ha dis­ covers a yacht anchored In the bay. De­ scending near the steamer, he meets a girl on an ice floe. He learns that the Srirl"s name is Jeanne Fielding and that the yacht has come north to seek signs of her father. Captain Fielding, an arctic explorer. A party from ths yacht is ma­ king search ashore. After Cayley departs Jeanne finds that he had dropped a cu­ riously-shaped stick. Captain Planck and th^ surviving crew of his wrecked whaler are (n hiding on the coast. A giant ruf- man named Roscot, had murdered Fielding and his two companions, after the ex­ plorer had revealed the location of an enormous ledge of pure gold. Roscoe then took command <yf the party. It develops that the ruffian had committed the mur­ der witnessed by Cayley. CHAPTER lit.--Continued. For a Ions time Roscoe walked steadily on, until the two had come far up the glacier. Finally, when he did stop, he whirled quite around and stood confronting Planck, squarely in the middle of a narrow path between two deep fissures in the ice. His eyes were glittering malevolently. "Do you know any reason," he asked in a thick voice, "why I don't pick jrou up ttuu urup you uuwu uuo of those cracks there, or why I don't serve you as I served that fellow yes­ terday?" Planck thought he meant to do it, but, with the fatalism that marks the men- of his profession, he stood fast and eyed his big opponent "You're strong enough to," he said. "And I'll do it if I want to; you know that," Roscoe supplemented. "Yes, I know that." The big man nodded curtly. "Well, I'm not going to now, be­ cause I choose not to. Listen. If you had the chance, could you navigate that solid mahogany, hand-painted ship down there?" Planck cleared his throat, as If something were stifling him. "With a crew, yes," he answered. "Could Schwartz run those nickel- plated engines he'll find in her, do you think?" "Yes." "Well, within two days I'll give you a chance to make good. Now, I'm going to tell you my plan, not be­ cause you asked me, but because I want you to know. I'd run the whole thing alone if I could, but I want you with me. We're going to take that yacht and we're going oft alone in her • --we of the Whaler, alone. Do you understand that?" "They're better armed than we," said Planck reflectively; "better fed, better everything. And man for man, bar you, they're Just as good, and they're three to one of us. It will want some pretty good planning." "You needn't worry about that," an­ swered Roscoe. "I didn't expect you to make the plans; I knew you couldn't. I've made them myself; they're working right now. Can you keep your tongue in your head and listen?" Planck nodded. "That searching party didn't go back to the yacht last night. They're all camped together--about 20 of them ---down in the Little Bear valley. There aren't above half a dozen fire­ arms in the bunch; none of the sail­ ors from the yacht have any, and they've got about two days' rations. They're all there together, except the one man we accounted for yesterday." "I see," said Planck; "and you think we can capture the yacht now while they're ashore." "Dou't tx-y to thluk, I tell you," Ros­ coe growled. "I'm doing the thinking. There are probably ten able-bodied men left on the yacht. TZiat's not good Enough odds, considering the way they're armed. But about an hour ago I sent Miguel down to tha Bhore party to be their guHe. He isn't going to say anything much to them, but what he says will be enough, I j-eckon. He's to pretend he's dotty and can't understand what they say to him." Planck's eyes widened a little and be did not ask his next question very steadily. "Where is he going to take them?" "Can't you guess that? He's going to lead them into Fog lake, of course." The thought of it made Planck's teeth chatter. Fog lake was, perhaps, the most curious natural phenomenon upon that strange arctic land--a little cup-shaped valley, from which the fog r.ever lifted--had never lifted once in all the four years they had lived there. On days when the rest of the land •was clear, the fog hung there, half way up the side of the hills, so that from the ridges surrounding it it real­ ly looked like a strange vapory sea. They had explored the edged of it, fearsomely, at times, but had never penetrated far enough to learn the secret of its mystery, if it had one. "And then?" Planck asked. "Why, they'll send out a relief party from the yacht, of course. The yacht's people know what rations the search­ ing party took with them, and when they don't come back in two days, they'll probably set out from the yacht, with every able-bodied man on board, and try to find the first party and bring it in. As soon as they are well out of hearing, v. _ ialie >he yacht. We may not find a living soul aboard her; and we certainly can't leave one there. But we'll steam up and take our gold aboard---all our gold. And then, well--"there's where you'll come in." ' "But what then, man? My God! what then? Do you suppose we can go steaming into San Francisco, or any other port in the world, with all that gold in our hull and another cap­ tain's log and papers?* We might just as well hang ourselves from our own crow-jack yard." "I hope your wits will improve when you get a deck under your feet," Ros­ coe growled. "On land here you're about, as much good as a pelican In a foot race. No, your sailing orders won't be San Francisco, nor any oth­ er port that has such a thing as A revenue officer about But you ought to know the north coast line over there as far east as McKenzie bay. You must know some harbor there where we can lie up for the winter and not be bothered." "Yes," said Planck, "I could take the yacht to such a place as that. There's a very good harbor In behind Hirshel Island. But what will we do when we get there?" "After that. It'n mv affair " have read the thought that lay at the bottom of Roscoe's mind. The gold hunter was not much of a sailor, but he felt confident that on the broad stretches of the Yukon he could navi­ gate a raft alone. CHAPTER IV. The Throwlng-Stlck. "Oh, I suppose," said Jeanne, "there's no use worrying." AcroR3 the table from where she sat at breakfast in the snug, warm, lux­ urious little dining room on the yacht, old Mr. Fanshaw methodically laid his coffee spoon !n the saucer beside his cup, and looked up at her with his slow, deliberate smile. "My dear," he said, "remember that Tom is in the party. Unless they find everything that, by the utmost stretch of hope, they could find, he would in­ sist on keeping up the search as long as the light lasted, and when the light failed, there would be no more light to come home by. Don't think of wor­ rying; I don't. We'll hear nothing of them for hours." "It won't be as long as that," she predicted confidently. "My sky-man will probably bring me news before then." OM Mr V l - him myself, coming* down out of de sky las' night. I was out on deck, suh." Fanshaw looked quickly from the negro's face to the girls as If he sus­ pected a hoax, but the terror In one face and the mystification in the other were obviously genuine. Then be rose and went over to the buffet, returning to the table with the oddly-shaped, rudely-whittled stick. "Do you mean to say," he demanded, looking up at the girl with a puzzled frown--"do you mean to say that he, the man you dreamed about, made you a present of this stick?" She laughed. "If that seems a rea­ sonable way of putting it, yes; at least It slipped out of his belt and I found it where he had been sitting. But can you imagine what he used it for?" "Oh, I know what it is, but that only makes the puzzle all the deeper. It's an Eskimo throwing-stick. They use it to shoot darts with. It lies in the palm of the hand, so, and the dart is put in that groove, though the butt of this one seems curiously mis­ shapen; I can't make it fit my hand. But I can't figure out how the thing got aboard the yacht; it wasn't her* yesterday." "Of not." ;h«i Raid; "my rty. man brought It." He ran his fingers through hi* bushy gray hair perplexedly. Then he laid the thing down and seated him­ self at the table. "At any rate," he said, "we needn't let even a mystery 8poll our breakfast. Come, my dear, you've eaten almost nothing. That omelet deserves better treatment." Obediently she took up her fork, but almost immediately laid it down again, and he saw her eyes brighten with tears. "Of course, if there'd been any news, if there'd been anything to find, we'd have heard." Silently he^-eached across the table and patted the hand that lay there on the white cloth. "Oh, I know I oughtn't to cry," she 6aid, "and I won't; it's your goodness and kindness to me as much as any- i thing else. Ever since he went away you've been like a father to me, and Tom, dear old Tom, like a brother. •> The moment Mr. Fanshaw and Jeanne emerged upon the deck they heard the sound of oars beneath them, and looking over the rail saw one of the boats in which the shore party had set out, pulling up alongside the accommodation ladder. Three men were in it, two of the crew and Tom Fanshaw. "What news, Tom?" his father called out anxiously enough to belie his former tranquil manner. '"Have you found anything? I hope there's nothing wrong." The younger man looked up. He saw his father, but not the girl. "Nothing wrong," he growled, "exoept this infernal ankle of mine. T've sprained it again, and I did it just when--" He broke the sentence off short there, his eye falling at that moment upon Jeanne. * N She paled a little, for she had been quick to perceive that something he had been about to tell would not be told now, or must be told differently. But she waited until his father, to­ gether with the two Bailors, had got the disabled man up onto the deck and safely installed in an easy chair. Then gravely, but steadily, "Just as what, Tom? What clue had they found just as you had to come away?" "It was very wonderful," he said; "quite inexplicable. Just as we were about breaking camp this morning we saw a man coming toward us across the Ice. We thought at first that it was Hunter, and we were mightly glad to see him, because he had stray­ ed off somewhere and hadn't camped with us. But we soon saw it wasn't he, wasn't a man anything like him. He was a queer, slouching, shuffling creature, dressed In skins, and he came up In a hesitating way, as if he was afraid of us. He couldn't talk English, nor understand It, apparent­ ly. He looked to me like a Portu­ guese, and I tried him in Spanish-- good Filipino Spanish--on the chance. I thought it startled him a little, and he pricked up his ears at it but he couldn't understand that either. He just kept beckoning hnd repeating two words--" "What words, Tom? Out with it!" His s-yds Were Roscoe. "We'll winter on the yacht. Then when the weather begins to loosen up a bit, but before the spring thaws, we'll land our gold and our stores; cache all the gold, except what we can carry over the trail, say, about 500 pounds of It, and we'll leave he yacht's seacocks open, so that v. hen the ice goes out, she'll scuttle ertntf. We shall probably find ,ledt:ee. p.nd perhaps a pony or two, on the yacht. If we do, it will bo easy. It's only a short hike to one of the tributaries of the Porcupine river. Once we reach the Porcupine, it will be easy, for it flows into the Yukon, and that's as good as a rail­ way line. We'll make a raft and float all the way down to Saint Michaels with no trouble at all. The gold we have with us will be enough to take us down to Vancouver, and there we can charter a ship. You take command of her, and we go north through the straits again that vei*y summer--next summer that will be, of course. We go back to the harbor where we ieft the yacht. You can figure out the rest for yourself, I guess." "Yes," said Planck. "It*S all very well--only won't there be a good many to trust that sort of secret to?" Roscoe looked at him with a savage sort of grin. "Come, you're improving. But that hike across the mountains to the upper tributaries of the Porcupine is a hard trail. There aren't likely to be many of us left by the time we get started floating down open water. When we get to the Yukon it won't be surprising if there .isn't anybody left at all, but you and me." Planck caught his meaning quickly enough, indeed, a duller man could have read it in Roscce's savage light blue eyes; and the thought made his teeth chatter. He would have felt a deadlier terror, perhaps, could he lips, "Your-- "Ob, I under- laughed. But. Glitterir?" M2!eo!*nt !v; cup half way to his what?" he questioned. stand." And then he his face grew suddenly serious, and he looked intently, curiously, into hers. "My child!" he criedj "it cant be that you are taking that dream of yours seriously. If I thought that, I would have to believe that this queer arctic climate was doing strange things with those nimble wits of yours. A man alighting on the ice­ floe. out of mid air, and telling you that he had just dropped In from Point Barrow; it's like the flight from the moon of Cyrano de Bergerac." She pressed her finger tips thought­ fully against her eyelids. "I know," she said, "it's perfectly incredible, Un­ cle Jerry, but It's perfectly true for all that." "Nonsense! Nonsense!" he said explosively. "Don't carry a joko too far, my dear." "It's anything but a joke," she said slowly, "and if it was a dream--if the sky-cian. was nothing but a vision, he certainly left me a material souve­ nir of his visit." Then, with a nod to­ ward the buffet, she spoko to Mr. Fanshaw's big negro valet who was serving their breakfast: "Hand Mr. Fanshaw that queer looking stfck, Sam, the one on the buffet. \Yb> why, what's the matter?" For she had lifted her eyes to the man's face as she finished speaking. It was wooden with fright, and the Whites showed all around the pupils of his eyes. "No, Miss Jeanne," he said, ' Scuse me. I wouldn't touch dat stick, not for all de gol' and jewels in de world; not even to oblige him." "What's that?" Fanshaw exclaimed, whirling upon him. "What do you mean? What the devil are you talk­ ing about?" "I seen blm, Mr. Fanshaw; I seen "I Can't Make It Fit My Hand." And then building this ship and com­ ing up here yourself, facing the dan­ gers yourself and letting Tom face them, all for such an impossible, hope­ less hope as that message the sea brought to us." Her voice faltered there, and she bent down abruptly and kissed the hand that was still caressing her o^n. "My child," he said, "your father and I were like brothers--nearer to each other than most brothers. He went away, knowing that If his ven­ ture failed. If it ended fatally for him, as it probably did, I should regard you as my daughter--as just as much a child of mine as Tom Is. If you hadn't been In the case at all, we'd have built this ship and come up here to find Tom Fielding just the same. There, don't cry. Put on that big fur coat of yours and come out with me on deck." This from the old gentleman, who had controlled his patience with dif­ ficulty during the little silence. But the younger man hesitated and looked into the girl's face, mutely, half-ques- tioningly, before he spoke. "The words," he said, "seemed to be your father's name--'Captain Field­ ing;' it sounded like that." She went quite white, and reeled a little. Then clutched at the shrouds for support. The old gentleman was at her side in an instant, his strong, steadying arm across her shoulders. Tom himself half rose from his chair, only to drop back into it again with a grimace of pain and a little dew of perspiration on his forehead. He looked rather white himself under the tan. "I suppose"--the girl safd almost volcelessly, "I suppose I mustn't dare J I I W --even let myself begin to hope yet, must I, not--yet?" don't know," said Tom. "The fel­ low seemed half-crazed; seemed, al­ most, to have iost the power of speech from long disuse of it But he meant to take us somewhere, that was clear enough from his gestures. If I could only have seen you before I began to blurt the tiling out, Fd have spared yon the suspense until there was some- thiag to tell. I'm sorry, Jeanne." "Its qoeer," she said, at the end of a rather long silence. "I'm sure there was no Portuguese in father's expedi­ tion. Except for two or three Swedes and Norwegians, they were all Amer­ icans. I know the name of every man who sailed <n his ship." "He might have taken some one on at St. Michaels," suggested the elder Fanshaw. "Yes," she said a little dubiously, "oniy 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 a pris­ matic binocular which was slung across across her shoulders. The two men exchanged glances behind her, the elder, one of inquiry, his son, a reluctant negative. No, It 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. "I 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 questloningly.. 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 tion, 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, In the middle of the night and talked to her awhile, and then flown away again. "She was really out on the Ice floe," be said; "so much I concede; but when I assure her that she dreamed the rest, she is skeptical about my ex­ planation." "But even you cant explain," she protested, "how I could dream about an Eskimo throwing-stick, and then bring it back to the yacht with me when I was wide-awake, and show It to you at the breakfast table this morning." "I'll have to admit," said the old gentleman, "that my explanation doesn't adequately account for that" The expression of the younger man's 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; "I helped him fold it up. It was made of bladders and bamboo and catgut, he said." "And his motor?" cried Tom. "What was his motor like?" "There was no motor at all," sbs Boiu; "just wiugs.' "There you see, Tom," interrupted his father, "absolute moonshine." But still the younger man shook * doubtful h"a<?. "No," he said, "the things' nc't impossible--not InconceiY- able, at least. The big birds can fly that far, and think nothing of It" The old man snorted: "They*ro built that way. Think of tfie Immense strength of their wing muscles." "Not so enormous." said the young- r man. "I dissected the wing of an albatross once to see. It's not by main strength they keep afloat In the air; it's by catching the trick erf 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 I asked him if he could keep flying, fly­ ing all the time like that, he said the biggest birds didn't fly; they sailed, and he said he sailed, too, and the force of gravity was his keel." Her story was making its lmpres- j slon on the younger man, at least j even if his father was as impervious I to it as he still seemed. j "Well, If you dreamed that" sa'.d Tom, "it was a mighty intelligent dream, I'll say that for It. ' "But It wasn't a dream at all," she cried. "Didn't I help him take the thing apart and fold it up into a bun­ dle? Aud didn't he say that he was a tax payer, and that his namo was Philip Cayley9" (TO BE CONTINUED.) IE I IS FOUND AT LAST FOR TWELVE WHOLE YEARS TH» WEARY MAN HA9 STAYED IN HIS BED. * • - ' . ? ,'A • -Ji* t"4 IS AN INMATE OF POORHOUSg With an Appetite That Would Sham* a Goat John Muncla Spends His Existence in Bed--Laughs at Any Suggestion of Work. Jerseyville, 111.--John Muncla Is the laziest man on earth. Furthermore he is proud of his somewhat degrading distinction. For the last 12 years he has lain on his bed in the Jersey coun­ ty poorhouse, eight miles from Jersey­ ville, and replied to every command that he arise and work with peals of weird laughter. Physicians have ex­ amined him time and time again »n<1 they declare that he is free from say infirmity that would Incapacitate him from active work. Now an old man probably seventy- one years of age he admits that ho was born (n Indiana at some point which he calls "below Port Wayne,** and that his father died when he was eleven years of age. Beyond this ho refuses to be interviewed and usually answers his questioners with a burst of gleeful laughter. He simply is an excellent example of what strength of character will ac­ complish for a man. Since the day 12 years ago that he made up his mind to ilo his one object in life with the result that he has succeeded, perhaps, even beyond his early expectations. For a time the poorhouse officials tried to force him from bed by refusing to bring his meals to him but John, un­ perturbed, simply giggled, turned hla face to the wall, and waited. After a time the poorhouse people were van­ quished and forced to bring him food for fear that he would starve to death. He is a small, sfender man with a clean-cut Intellectual looking face, yet his appetite has been unimpaired by his long stay In bed. He demands his three meals a day and upon get­ ting them eats every crumb that is handed to him. His average meat would put to rout the most husky farmhand, yet his limbs are shrunken from disuse. The only physical exercise that thfa laziest of men permits himself Is the • •m By Way of Variety. "How did you enjoy the vaudeville performance?" "It was good. They had performing cats, a baseball play­ er, a champion pugilist a trained cockatoo, and. I give you my word, they even haul an actor doing a turn." --Louisville Courier-Journal. She Comes for Study, Business and Amusement, and Can't Be Left Out of the Social Reckoning. Country Girl in the City millinery, art archery, astrology, agri­ culture, stenography, sculpture, the dance and the drama, hygiene and handicrafts, osteopathy and the art of conversation, Journalism, theology, al­ most any and everything one can im­ agine. Broadway, State street Broad street, all the great arteries of city life and traffic continually are crowd­ ed with her and her fellows. She comes 'ooking for work as well as education. And, alas, poor youngster. She comes so generously, so eagerly, with such diverse purposes, and with fuch persistent 1* seemingly intermit­ tent regularity, that it Is Impossible to leave her out of any serious social reckoning. She comes to study music, medicine. she also comes looking for amuse- The teachers of art music, commer­ cial branches, all the thousand things she studies, welcome her eagerly. So do the more Jaded co-workers to whose custom-dulled perceptions she restores a sharper edge. Many employers pre­ fer her services for this very reason. Socially, the normal girl from the email town is famous for her flourish­ ing. Ready, piquant intensely alive, vitally desirous of tasting life to the utmost she comes, sees and conquers fresh social kingdoms yearly. She Is popular and prominent In the clubs, the churches, the schools, the social settlements, the work of the Young Women's Christian association, the trade and craft organizations--all the rich and varied life of the city. But the abnormal or subnormal girl from the small town the girl who. per­ haps, motherless, perhaps carelessly reared, perhaps the victim of innocent ignorance or sudden family disaster, faces metropolitan conditions less ably j--ah! that's another tale.--The New [ Idea Woman's Magazine. Thjngs Worth Knowing. There Is' no part of the sunflower that is without commercial value. The stalk is pithy, and when compressed Into blocks the pith is enabled to ab­ sorbing an immense quantity of wa­ ter, besides retaining much flexibility, and BO It Is used lu solving the prob­ lem of lining for battleship sides. The clocks are placed between two wallf of steel, and the stuff is so resilient that It closes up thte hole made by a projectile, keeping out the water for a longtime. The sunflower Is used some times in the manufacture of cigars. The seeds, raised by hundreds of mil­ lions of pounds in Russia, make a palatable edible oil, with the residue good for cattle. The seed Is also ex­ cellent food for poultry, and birds generally. The blossoms furnish honey and an excellent yellow dye* The Chinese extract a silky fiber frois the eta Iks. which are also good for fuel and for the production of pot­ ash. Among some people there Is a belief that the sunflower keeps away malaria. Old John Muncla in Bad, screwing up of his eyes, accompanied by a wrinkling of the forehead much as though he were busily engaged Iff solving some very difficult and cate problem. During his entire twenty years* stay upon the county poor farm he has not given one clue to his boyhood or tho> past of his youth. The first that ma known of him was when he turned up in St. Charles county, Missouri, later removing across the river to Jeraegr county, Illinois. The last piece ot manual labor with which he has been connected was a bit of wood chopping for a farmer of Elsah, 111., and sees*- *4111 14 VA iligl/ DViU A 051 cto li MUiVUgU «« alludes to it with a half chuckle. It was 12 years ago that the old man one morning announced he would stay in bed, except for the time need­ ed to go to his three square ones a day, and he kept the promise. A year later, wearied by the walking thus necessitated, and by the exertion of dressing himself, he said that there­ after he would stay In bed. Only once in eleven years has he violated that resolve. One very hot day during the summer before last he found him­ self without drinking water In his airy second-floor apartment where he lies alone, and descended the steps to get the drink, also returning unaided. He may have thought to do this unob­ served, but he was detected, and to- ' mates of the place still remember the incident as an astonishing one. During the 20 years which the old man has spent as an almoner of Jer­ sey county he never has been seen to look at a book or paper, and the rea­ sonable theory that be cannot read' is hard to reconcile with his Intelli­ gent. educated, almost refined appess* ance, even when lying on a cot in ft - poorhouse dormitory. Despite his apparent dislike for con- ~ versation with other people, and hia disuse of books and papers, he cast tell the day of week, the day of ths month and the year with as much pre­ cision as though a calendar hung fore his bed. Chuckling, wrinkling up his face and narrowing his eyes, occasionally talk­ ing Just enough to tantalize persona curious about his past old John pn*t»- ably will carry his secrets, if he has any, to the graveyard behind the pooi*> house hill. And meanwhile he will re­ main in the bed which has supported his work-hating frajae for the last IS years, and consume enough daily pro­ vender to teed a harvest hand. • ^ > - : - • '**4 • #331 = -.3 •; m Pet Collie Saves Babe's Life. Omaha, Neb.--Forced against a fence and viciously attacked by a large game cock, Bessie Savage, a two-year-old child, was saved frost probable blinding and the rooster was torn to death by the child's Scotch collie. Becomes a Grandma at Twenty-Nina* Denver, Colo.--Mrs. Susie Hurley, mother of nine children, recently Vm- came a grandmother. She is onlp twenty-nine years of age. Her daugh­ ter, now fifteen years of age. It 0fe%' eldest daughter of her family.