Front matter (continued 8)

"MacNair is right," I said. "I am not starting out to fall by the wayside, and do not forget that the Eolus will sail far above the ice-fields, and that during the high-noon of the long arctic day of six months duration. I apprehend no danger, but anticipate a pleasant excursion to my native land. But I will not go any further this time, than is absolutely necessary. I hope to meet the right persons at some of the many stations in Alaska, and if so I will return several days earlier than I have promised. I shall return as soon as possible. My life work is here, for it will take a life-time to complete the work that I have laid out for myself to do for the benefit of my countrymen who live in the external world."

As I was speaking, Captain Ganoe stood with his hand on the door of the Eolus, at if it was by right his place to have the last parting word. Captain Battell and the other comrades of the Ice King drew near. Upon their faces, I read the affectionate regard they had for me. It was a trying moment. I wanted a last word with Captain Ganoe. I wanted it impressive, kind but inflexible. I shook hands with all who stood near, and then as I held Captain Ganoe's hand I said to Oqua:

"Step on board, I want you to assist me a moment," and to the Captain, "Wait here a moment, I have something to say to you."

Oqua did as directed, and we ascended and made the circuit of the lights, while I prepared myself for the revelation I intended. Oqua handled the ship while I hastily donned the attire which characterised my sex in the outer world. I arrayed myself in the same rich satin dress that I had worn on the last evening I had spent with Raphael, at his uncle's home in New York. My golden locks made into a neat fitting wig, and put up in the game style which he had so much admired, now covered my short cropped hair. Around my neck I had the same gold chain and locket of peculiar workmanship, and the same ring on my hand, which had been his parting presents to his affianced bride. Over all I wore a cloak that came down to my feet.

My toilet complete, we dropped to the level of the platform, but just outside, and Oqua with a parting pressure of the hand, and with a last injunction: "Nequa, be strong, be true, but do not forget to be kind and considerate," passed from the Eolus to the platform, and moving back a few feet, I stepped to the door and throwing aside my cloak, stood arrayed before Captain Ganoe, just as I had been when I bade him adieu at our guardian's home just fifteen years before.

The crowd stood spell-bound. None but Oqua, MacNair, and the crew of the Ice King had ever seen any one dressed in the costume which is peculiar to women in the outer world. Captain Ganoe stood rooted to the spot, and gazed at me with a look of consternation, as if I was one who had just arisen from the grave, as I said:

"Captain Ganoe, you doubtless recognize me and I ask your attention for a moment. You will probably remember, that on the Ice King you confidently related to your scientist, Jack Adams, the story of your engagement to Cassie VanNess, and asked him if he had ever loved. He made an evasive reply. If you care to have an explicit answer to that question, ask my trusted friend Oqua. I do not wish to have that story again pass my lips. I have done with it forever. I have now taken up a new life and henceforth I am wedded to a new lover, and the wealth of my affections shall be bestowed upon humanity.

"The memory of the old life, and the old love, carries with it the martyrdom of all that is noblest, purest and most sacred in the soul of woman, her devotion to the chosen idol of her girlhood days. These outer world conditions so foreign to all that is good and true, make me wonder that I should ever have been so weak as to be victimized by them. But such are the consequences of a false education, which belongs to a benighted past and cannot be helped. For many long years, in my assumed character of Jack Adams, the sailor, I roamed over the high seas to find you, and during all of our perils in the ice, I stood by your side. I worshiped you with an idolatrous devotion. And all this, only to hear again and again from your lips, the expression of sentiments, that condemned all that I had done, as disreputable, unworthy and immoral. You have repeatedly declared that as an honorable man, you could never unite yourself with such a woman in the holy bonds of matrimony, no matter how much you loved her.

"It was for this reason, that my own self respect forbade that I should reveal my identity to you. The case of Huston was almost identical with my own, and in condemning the course which he had taken you condemned me. I took it for granted, that as an honorable man, you expressed your honest sentiments, and there was nothing for me to do but to submit to your verdict—"

The Captain raised his hand as if to speak, but I checked him, saying:

"Hear me through. It is in no spirit of unkindness that I speak. I have waited patiently for you to so modify your views, that I could make myself known to you in the full assurance of your approval of my fidelity to our plighted troth. But you gave me no such opportunity. Oqua penetrated my disguise at first sight and many others of my inner world friends with whom I have been associated, intuitively understood that Jack Adams, the sailor, was an assumed character and why it had been adopted; but you, blinded by the crystallized errors of a false education, were ignorant of my identity.

"I now reveal myself to you, because I do not wish to continue this assumed character, even to escape the pain that would be inflicted by your disapproval. I do not regret the course I have taken. Under the same circumstances I would be compelled to do the same thing again, rather than be false to the higher laws of my own nature. It is true that I have repudiated, and still repudiate, any legal obligation that may be secured by fraud, misrepresentation or coercion. I now know that human laws, human customs and legal ceremonies may be the cover for the violation of God's laws which are implanted in the human soul. I have been true to these higher, God made laws of my own being, and disregard all man made laws and customs which violate the most sacred rights of the human soul.

"If I cannot meet you as an equal, free to think and act for myself, regardless of the arbitrary rulings of either church or state, then it will be far better for both of us, that we remain apart. I will never be bound by any ceremony that does not meet my own approval. When it comes to matters of this kind, I, Cassie VanNess, am the lawmaker.

"You have repeatedly expressed sentiments, which could have no other meaning, than that you regarded legal and popular ceremonies, as of more worth in your estimation, than the 'unpurchased, and unpurchasable devotion of a loving woman.' If you prefer a companion who cares more for what Mother Grundy might say, than she does for Captain Ganoe, then I could not possibly be that companion. When I return, let all this be forgotten. Let us meet as friends, forget if we can, the past, and let each of us live our own life, true to our own convictions of what is noble, good and true. I have had one lover and lost him because I loved him too devotedly. I shall never make that mistake again. But as the widow of such a lover, I shall henceforth continue to labor for the upbuilding of all humanity, as I would gladly have lived for him, and him only.

"And now, farewell Raphael. I regret, not that I loved you so devotedly, but that I did not learn sooner, that it was only love with certain restrictions, and within certain specific bounds, that you wanted. Excuse my mistake and farewell."

While I maintained my equilibrium, I felt that my heart would break. With my hand I waved a farewell to all, and set the Eolus in motion. As I closed the door, Captain Ganoe sprang forward and would have dashed himself from the tower but for those who stood by him. His last words have been ringing in my ears ever since as they were wafted to me on the balmy air. In a voice of agonizing entreaty, he cried out:

"Oh Cassie! Cassie! For God's sake, Come back! Come back!"

THE END.