Page:The Atlantic Monthly Volume 24.djvu/692

684 Haliburton, and, grateful and happy in comparison, sank into the first sleep, not haunted by horrid dreams, which I had known for years.

Haliburton knew that George Orcutt had taken with him a good Dolland's refractor, which he had bought in Lon- don, of a two-inch glass. He knew that this would give Orcutt a very considera- ble power, if he could only adjust it ac- curately enough to find No. 9 in the 3d Range. Orcutt had chosen well in selecting the " Saw-Mill Flat," a large meadow, easily distinguished by the peculiar shape of the mill-pond which we had made. Eager though Haliburton was, to join me, he loyally took moneys, caught the first train to Skowhegan, and, travelling thence, in thirty-six hours more was again descend- ing Spoonwood Hill, for the first time since our futile observations. The snow lay white upon the Flat. With Rob. Shea's help, he rapidly unrolled a piece of black cambric twenty yards long, and pinned it to the crust upon the snow ; another by its side, and another. Much cambric had he left. They had carried clown with them enough for the funerals of two Presidents. Haliburton showed the symbols for " I understand," but he could not resist also displaying , which are the dots and lines to represent O. K., which, he says, is the shortest message of comfort. And, not having exhausted the space on the Flat, he and Robert, before night closed in, made a gigantic O. K.., fifteen yards from top to bottom, and in marks that were fifteen feet through.

I had telegraphed my great news to Haliburton on Monday night. Tues- day night he was at Skowhegan. Thurs- day night he was at No 9. Friday he and Rob. stretched their cambric. Mean- while, every day I slept. Every night I was glued to the eye-piece. Fifteen minutes before the eclipse every night this weird dance of leaps two hundred feet high, followed by hops of twenty feet high, mingled always in the steady order I have described, spelt out the ghastly message :

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat."

And every morning, as the eclipse ended, I saw the column creep along to the horizon, and again, as the duty of opening day, spell out the same :

" Show ' I understand ' on the Saw- Mill Flat."

They had done this twice in every twenty-four hours for nearly two years. For three nights steadily, I read these signals twice each night ; only these, and nothing more.

But Friday night all was changed. Af- ter "Attention," that dreadful "Show" did not come, but this cheerful sig- nal :

" Hurrah. All well. Air, food, and friends ! what more can man require ? Hurrah."

How like George ! How like Ben Brannan ! How like George's wife ! How like them all ! And they were all well ! Yet poor / could not answer. Nay, I could only guess what Halibur- ton had done. But I have never, I be- lieve, been so grateful since I was born !

After a pause, the united line of leap- ers resumed their jumps and hops. Long and short spelled out :

" Your O. K. is twice as large as it need be."

Of the meaning of this, lonely /had, of course, no idea.

" I have a power of seven hundred," continued George. How did he get that? He has never told us. But this I can see, that all our analogies deceive us, of views of the sea from Mt. Washington, or of -the Boston State- House from Wachusett. For in these views we look through forty or eighty miles of dense terrestrial atmosphere. But Orcutt was looking nearly vertical- ly through an atmosphere which was, most of it, rare indeed, and pure in- deed, compared with its lowest stra- tum.

In the record-book of my observa- tions these despatches are entered as 12 and 13. Of course it was impossi^ ble for me to reply. All I could do was to telegraph these in the morning to Skowhegan, sending them to the