feet. Day and night. Day and night. Snow, snow all the time, till the
tally of days grew, and the weeks slowly passed. It almost seemed as if
Nature, in her shame, were seeking to hide up the sight of her own
creation.

For three silent weeks the snow continued to fall without a break. Then
it ceased as abruptly as it had begun, leaving the fort buried well nigh
to the eaves. The herald of change was a wild rush of wind sweeping down
the valley from the broken hills which formed its northern limits. And,
within half an hour, the silence was torn, and ripped, and tattered, and
the world transformed, and given up to complete and utter chaos. A
hurricane descended on the post, and its timbers groaned under the added
burden. The forest giants laboured and protested at the merciless
onslaught, while the crashing of trees boomed out its deep note amidst
the shriek of the storm. As the fury of it all rose, so rose up the
snowfall of weeks into a blinding fog which shut out every sight of the
desolate plateau as though it had never been.

* * * * *

Five weeks saw the extent of winter's first onslaught. And after that
for awhile, the battle resolved itself into a test of human endurance,
with the temperature hovering somewhere below 60 deg. below zero. For a few
short hours the sun would deign to appear above the horizon, prosecute
its weary journey across the skyline, and ultimately die its daily death
with almost pitiful indifference. Then some twenty hours, when the world
was abandoned to the starry magnificence of the Arctic night, supported
by the brilliant light of a splendid aurora.

It was during this time that Steve pursued his researches into the lives
of these people. He was sitting now in the laboratory, which was a
building apart from all the rest. It was the home of the chemist's
research. It was equipped with wonderful completeness. Besides the
shelves containing all the paraphernalia of a chemist's profession, and
the counter which supported a distilling apparatus, and which was
clearly intended for other experiment as well, there was a desk, and a
small wood stove, which was alight, and radiating a pleasant heat.

It was the desk which held most interest for Steve. It was here he
looked to find, in the dead man's papers, in his letters, in his records
and books, the answer to every question in his mind.

For some hours he had been reading from one of the volumes of the man's