Polaris and the Goddess Glorian
By Charles B. Stilson
Copyright 1917 by Popular Publications, Inc.
Introduction
In the antarctic wilds far below Ross Sea, Polaris Janess (Polaris—ofthe Snows), was born, of a mother he never knew, and grew to manhood'syears knowing one human face only, that of his father. When that fatherdied, the young man set his face to the north, to find the world ofmen, of which his father and his books had told him; and to deliverto the National Geographic Society in Washington a packet containingscientific data compiled by his explorer sire.
Journeying through the silent wastes with his dog team, the son of thesnows found Rose Emer, an American heiress, who had strayed from anexploring party, and who waited death in the icy wilderness.
Hurled southward again in a breakup of the ice floes where they hadcamped, Polaris and the girl came upon the kingdom of Sardanes—avalley girded by volcanic hills which warmed it, and peopled by a lostfragment, some two thousand strong, of the ancient Greeks.
The adventures of the man of the snows and the American maid inSardanes; how they escaped thence; how their love bloomed amidthe eternal snows; and how they won at last to America, where theGeographic Society hailed the dead Stephen Janess as the first man toset foot on the Southern Pole—all these things have been related.
Zenas Wright, friend of Polaris's father, and a celebrated studentof volcanic phenomena, told Polaris that the fires which had warmedSardanes for centuries were passing away from the valley, and that alllife in the ancient kingdom must perish.
Chartering the United States second-class cruiser Minnetonka,Polaris, Wright, and Captain James Scoland set sail to rescue theSardanians. Scoland, who loved Rose Emer, deserted Janess and Wright inthe wilderness and went back to America to woo the Rose-maid. But RoseEmer refused him, and gray Marcus, Polaris's dog, protected her fromScoland's profaning lips and tore the recreant captain so horribly thatthe man went mad, and in his madness revealed his inhuman treachery.
Again the Minnetonka turned her nose to the mysterious South, andRose Emer went down the bitter seas to find her sweetheart.
Meanwhile Polaris and old Zenas Wright found Sardanes a waste of snows,its volcanic girdle cold and dead, its people, led by the mad priestof Analos, gone to their doom through the fiery "Gateway" of theirgod Hephaistos. Only Minos, the kind, and his bride, the Lady Memene,remained alive, hidden in a cave in the hills. Those four, Polaris,Wright, and the two Sardanians, were picked up by the Minnetonka nearthe Antarctic Circle as they were making their perilous way northwardin a small launch which they had found in the wreck of CaptainScoland's supply ship.
In the story which follows will be related the tale which was broughtback to America by old Zenas Wright—what befell Polaris and hiscompanions after the Minnetonka turned northward—homeward.
CHAPTER I
THE GOLDEN STRANGER
On the bridge of the cruiser Minnetonka stood Minos, the Sardanianking, staring southward in the wake of the ship, southward where hislost, dead kingdom lay buried under the soft, cruel snows beyond theunchartered antarctic seas. Ahead of the ship, full of promise, fullof hope, was America. For the Minnetonka had rounded the Horn thatmorning and was on her long straight course for the port of home.
Below him, in her cabin, was the girl bride of Minos, the Lady Memene,so strangely won and saved from the crowning horror of his kingdom'sfall. It was mid-forenoon of a cloudless day. Gay voices echoed alongthe de