you forget it all? Can you? I'll raise every sort of hell to fix you
good and happy. And you and me, together, we'll just send this great
Sachigo of ours booming sky high, and in a year I promise to hand you
the wreckage that was once the Skandinavia. Marry me, dear, and I'll
show you the thing a man can be and do. And I'll make you forget the
ruffian I've had to act towards you. Will you let me help you to forget?
Will you--?"

Nancy's eyes were frankly raised to the passionate gaze which revealed
the depths of the man's great heart.

"I have," she said in a low voice. "I've forgotten everything
but--but--you."

She moved as she spoke. There was no hesitation. All her soul was
shining in her eyes, and she yielded to the impulse she was powerless to
deny. She came to him, releasing herself from the great hands that held
her shoulders. She reached up and placed her soft arms about the neck
that rose trunk-like above his shoulders. In a moment she was caught and
crushed in his arms.

"Why--that's just fine!"

The exclamation broke from the man out of sheer delight and happiness.
And the while he bent down and kissed the smiling upturned face, and
permitted one hand to wander caressingly over the girl's wealth of
beautiful hair.

CHAPTER XXVII

LOST IN THE TWILIGHT

A fierce wind swept down off the hills. So it had blown all night and
all the day before. The sky was overcast, and the thermometer had
dropped below zero. It was one of those brief "freeze-ups" such as
Father Adam had awaited, and it might last two or three days. Then would
come prompt reaction, and the rapidity of the thaw would be an
hundred-fold increased.

The sun was hidden, and the sky looked to be heavily burdened with snow.
The earth was frozen solid, and the wide flung forests were white with
the hoar frosts of Spring.

Father Adam was standing beside the crouching team of dogs. There were
five of them; great huskies, shaggy of coat and fiercely wolfish. They
were fat and soft from idleness. But they would serve, for the sled was
light, and a few days' run would swiftly harden them.

The outfit was waiting just beyond the kitchen door of the house on the
hill, and the view of the busy Cove below was completely shut out. The
position for the waiting sled had not been calculated by the man who
owned it, but by the shrewd, troubled mind of Bat Harker.

He was standing beside the tall figure of the missionary now, squat and
sturd