Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1905 — The Wings of the Morning [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Wings of the Morning

By LOUIS TRACY

SYNOPSIS. Chapter I—The Sirdar, having among her passengers Iris Deane, daughter of the owner of the ship, and Robert Jeuks, who is working as a waiter, is wrecked. ll—All are lost save Miss Deane and Jenks, who are cast ashore on an islet in the Pacific. Jenkins recovers stores and weapons from the wrecked vessel. Delighted with this discovery, more precious than diamonds at the moment for he doubted the advisability of existing on the water supply of the pitcher plant—he knelt to peer into the excavation. The well had been properly made. Ten feet down he could see the reflection of his face. Expert hands had tapped the secret reservoir of the island. By stretching to the full extent of his arm he managed to plunge the stick into the water. Tasting the drops, he found that they were quite sweet. The sand and porous rock provided the best of Alter beds. He rose, well pleased, and noted that on the opposite side the appearance of the shrubs and tufts of long grass indicated the existence-of a grown over path toward the cliff. He followed it, walking carelessly, with eyes seeking the prospect beyond, when something rattled and crocked beneath his feet. Looking down, he was horrified to find he was trampling on a skeleton. Had a venomous snake coiled its glistening folds around his leg he would not have been more startled. But this man of Iron nerve soon recovered. He frowned deeply after the first involuntary heart throb. With the stick he cleared away the undergrowtli and revealed the skeleton of a man. The bones were big and strong, but oxidized by the action of the air. Jenks had injured the left tibia by his tread, but three fractured ribs and a smashed shoulder blade told some terrible unwritten story. Beneath the mournful relics were fragments of decayed cloth. It was blue serge. Lying about were a few blackened objects, brass buttons marked with an anchor. The dead man’s boots were in the best state of preservation, but the leather had shrunk, and the nails protruded like fangs. A rusted pocketknife lay there, and on the left breast of the skeleton rested a round piece of tin, the top of a canister, which might have reposed in a coat pocket. Jenks picked it up. Some curious marks and figures were punched into its surface. After a hasty glance he put it aside for more leisurely examination. No weapon was visible. He could form no estimate as to the cause of the death of this poor unknown nor the time since the tragedy had occurred. Jenks must have stood many minutes before he perceived that the skeleton was headless. At first he imagined that in rummaging about with the stick he had disturbed the skull. But the most minute search demonstrated that it had gone—had been taken away, in fact—for the plants which so effectually screened the lighter bones would not permit the skull to vanish. Then the frown on the sailor’s face became threatening, thunderous. He recollected the rusty creese. Indistinct memories of strange tales of the China sea crowded unbidden to his brain. “Dyaks!” he growled fiercely. “A ship’s officer, an Englishman probably, murdered by head hunting Dyak pirates!” If they came once they would come again. Five hundred yards away Iris Deane was sleeping. He ought not to have left her alone. And then, with the devilish ingenuity of coincidence, a revolver shot awoke the echoes and sent all manner of wild fowl hurtling through the trees with clamorous outcry. Panting and wild eyed, Jenks was at the girl’s side in an inconceivably short space of time. She was not beneath the shelter of the grove, but on the sands, gazing, pallid in cheek and lip, at the group of rocks on the edge of the lagoon. “What is the matter?” he gasped. “Oh, I don’t know!” she wailed brokenly. “I had a dream, such a horrible dream. You were struggling with some awful thing down there.” She pointed to the rocks. “I was not near the place,” he said laboriously. It cost him an effort to breathe. His broad chest expanded inches with each respiration. “Yes, yes, I understand. But I awoke and ran to save you. When I got here I saw something, a thing with waving arms, and fired. It vanished, and then you came.” The sailor walked slowly to the rocks. A fresh chip out of the stone showed where the ballet struck. One huge bowlder was wet, as if water had been splashed over it. He halted and looked intently into the water. Not a fish was to be seen, but small spirals of sand were eddying up from the bottom, where it shelved steeply from the shore. Iris followed him. “See!” she cried excitedly. “I was not mistaken. There was something here.” A creepy sensation ran up the man's spine and passed behind his ears. At this spot the drowned Lascars were lying. Like an inspiration came the knowledge that the cuttlefish, the dreaded octopus, abounds in the China sea,

Ills face was livid when he turned to Iris. “You are overwrought by fa-

tigue, Miss Deane,” he said. “What you saw was probably a seal.” He knew the ludicrous substitution would not be questioned. “Please go and lie down again.” “I cannot,” she protested. “I am too frightened*" “Frightened! By a dream! In broad daylight!” “But why are you so pale? What has alarmed you?” “Can you ask? Did you not give tha agreed signal?” “Yes, but”— Her inquiring glance fell. He was breathless from agitation rather than running. He was perturbed on her account. For an instant she had looked into his soul. “I will go hack,” she said quietly, “though I would rather accompany you. What are you doing?” “Seeking a place to lay our heads,” he answered, with gruff carelessness. “You really must rest, Miss Deane. Otherwise you will he broken up by fatigue and become ill.” So Iris again sought her couch of sand, and the sailor returned to the skeleton. They separated unwillingly, each thinking only of the other’s safety and comfort. 5 CHAPTER IV. 0 CROSS the parched bones lay the stick discarded by Jenks In his alarm. He picked it up and resumed his progress along the pathway. So closely did he now examine the ground that he hardly noted his direction. The track led straight toward the wall of rock. The distance was not great—about forty yards. At first the brushwood impeded him, but soon even this hindrance disappeared, and a well defined passage meandered through a belt of trees, some strong and lofty, others quite immature. More bushes gathered at the foot of the cliff. Behind them he could see the mouth of a cave. The six months' old growth of vegetation about the entrance gave clear indication as to the time which had elapsed since a human foot last disturbed the solitude. A few vigorous blows with the stick cleared away obstructing plants and leafy branches. The sailor stooped and looked into the cavern, for the opening was barely five feet high. He perceived instantly that the excavation vu man's handiwork applied to a fault in the hard rock. A sort of natural shaft existed, and this had been extended by manual labor. Beyond the entrance the cave became more lofty. Owing to its position with reference to the sun at that hour Jenks imagined ‘that sufficient light would be obtainable when the tropical luxuriance of foliage outside was dispensed with.

At present the Interior was dark. With the stick he tapped the walls and roof. A startled cluck and the rush of wings heralded the flight of two birds alarmed by the noise. Soon his eyes, more accustomed to the gloom, made «ot that the place was about thirty feet deep, ten feet wide in the center and seven or eight feet high. At the farther end was a collection of objects inviting prompt attention. Each moment he could see with greater distinctness. Kneeling on one side of the little pile, he discerned that on a large stone serving as a rude bench were some tin utensils, some knives, a sextant and a quantity of empty cartridge cases. Between the stone and what a miner terms the “face” of the rock was a four foot space. Here, half imbedded in the sand which covered the floor, were two pickaxes, a shovel, a sledge hammer, a fine timber felling ax and three crowbars. In the darkest corner of the cave’s

extremity the “walT appeared to he very smooth. He prodded with the stick, and there was a sharp clang of tin He discovered six square kerosene oil cases carefully stacked up. Three were empty, one seemed to be half full, and the contents of two were untouched. With almost feverish haste be ascertained that the half filled tin did really contain oil. “What a find!” he ejaculated aloud. So far as he could Judge, the cave harbored no further surprises. Returning toward the exit, his boots dislodged more empty cartridges from the sand. They were shells adapted to a revolver of heavy! caliber. At a short distance from the doorway they were present in dozens. “The remnants of a fight,” he thought. “The man was attacked and defended himself here. Not expecting the arrival, of enemies, he provided no store of food or water. He was killed while trying to reach the well, probably at night.” He vividly pictured the scene—a brave, hardy European keeping at hay a boat load of Dyak savages, enduring manfully the agonies of hunger, thirst, perhaps wounds; then the siege, followed by a wild effort to gain the life giving well, the hiss of a Malay parang wielded by a lurking foe and the last despairing struggle before death came. He might be mistaken. Perchance there was a less dramatic explanation. But lie could not shake off his first impressions. “What was the poor devil doing here?? he asked. “Why did he bury hiriiself in this rock, with mining utensils and a few rough stores? He could not be a castaway. There is the indication of purpose, of preparation, of method combined with ignorance, for none who knew the ways of Dyaks and Chinese pirates would venture to live here alone if he could help it, and if he really were alone.” There was relief in hearing his own voice. He could hum and think and act. Arming himself with the ax, he attacked the bushes and branches of trees in front of the cave. He cut a fresh approach to the well and threw the litter over the skeleton. At first he was inclined to bury it where it lay, but he disliked the idea of Iris walking unconsciously over the place. No time could be wasted that day. He would seize an early opportunity to act as gravedigger. After an absence of little more than an hour he rejoined the girl. She saw him from afar and wondered whence he obtained the ax he shouldered. “You are a successful explorer,” she cried when he drew near. “Yes, Miss Deane. I have found water, implements, a shelter, even light" “What sort of light?” “Oil.” “And the shelter—is it a house?” “No, a cave. If you are sufficiently rested you might come and take possession.” Her eyes danced with excitement. He told her what he had seen, with reservations, and she ran on before him to witness these marvels. “Why did you make a new path to the well?” she inquired after a rapid survey. “A new path!” The pertinent question staggered him. “Yes, tlie people who lived here must have had some sort of free passage.” He lied easily. “I have only cleared away recent growth,” he said. “And why did they dig a cave? It surely would be much more simple to build a house from all these trees.” “There you puzzle me,” he said frankly. They had entered the cavern but a little way and now came out. “These empty cartridges are funny. They suggest a fort, a battle.” Womanlike, her words were carelessly chosen, but they were crammed with inductive force. Embarked on the toboggan slope of untruth, the sailor slid smoothly downward.

“Events have colored your imagination, Miss Deane. Even in England men often preserve such things for future use. They can be reloaded.” “Yes, I have seen keepers do that. This is different. There is an air of”— “There is a lot to l>e done,” broke in Jenks emphatically. “We must climb the hill and get back here in time to light another tire before the sun goes cfbwn. I want to prop a canvas sheet in front of the cave and try to devise a lamp.” “Must I sleep inside?” demanded Iris. “Y'es. Where else?” There was a pause, a mere whiff of awkwardness. “I will mount guard outside,” went on Jenks. He was trying to improve the edge of the ax by grinding it on a soft stone. The girl went into the cave again. She was inquisitive, uneasy. “That arrangement”— she began, but ended in a sharp cry of terror. The dispossessed birds had returned during the sailor’s absence. “I will kill them!” he shouted in anger. “Please don’t. There has been enough of death in this place already.” The words Jarred on his ears. . Then he felt that she could only allude to the victims of the wreck. “I was going to say,” she explained, “that we must devise a partition. There is no help for It until you construct a sort of house. Candidly, I do not like this hole in the rock. It is a vault, a tomb.” “You told me that I was in command, yet you dispute my orders.” He strove hard to appear brusquely good humored, indifferent, though for one of his mold he was absurdly irritable. The cause was overstrain, but that explanation escaped him. “Quite true. But if sleeping in the cold, in dew or rain, is bad for me, it must be equally bad for you, and without you I am helpless, you ■now.” He laughed sardonically, and the

harsh note clasUecL with her trank candor. Here at least she was utterly deceived. His changeful moods were incomprehensible. “I will serve you to the best of my ability, pdiss Deane,” he exclaimed. “We must hope for a speedy rescue, and I am inured to exposure. It la otherwise with you. Are you ready for the climb?” The crest of the hill was tree covered, and they could see nothing beyond their immediate locality until the suilor found a point higher than the rest, where a rugged collection of hard basalt and the uprooting of some poon trees provided un open space elevated above the ridge. For a short distance the foothold was precarious. Jeuks helped the girl in this part of the climb. His strong, gentle grasp gave her confidence. She was flushed with exertion when they stood together on the summit of this elevated perch. They could look to every poiut of the compuss except a small section on the southwest. Here the trees rose behind them until the brow of the precipice was reached. The emergence into a sunlit panorama of land and sea, though expected, was profoimdly enthralling. They appeared to stand almost exactly in the editor of the Island, which was crescent shaped. It was no larger than the sailor had estimated. The new slopes now revealed were covered with verdure down to the very edge of the water, which for nearly a mile Seaward broke over jagged reefs. The sea looked strangely calm from this height. Irregular blue patches on the horizon to south and east caught the man’s first glance. He unslung the binoculars lie still carried and focused them eagerly. ’•lslands,” he cried, “and big ones too!” [TO HE CONTINUED i

Pasture: —l have good pasture for" 50 head of cattle; well watered at all times. Pasture located 5 miles north of Rensselaer, on the Mrs. Laughridge farm. For further particulars inquire at farm. '• J. E. SULLENBERGER.

Revealed the skeleton of a man.