so far removed from her life, and from those with
whom her life had been associated. She had thought a thousand times of
those men with whom she had been brought into contact. And the very idea
of love had only filled her with nausea. Her experience, from her
step-father down to the loafing "sharps" of Seal Bay, had firmly planted
in her mind the conviction that the men who haunted the shadows north
of 60 deg. were only creatures whose quality of soul dared not display
itself in the sunlight of truth and honesty.

Yet here, here where the world's dark secrets were more deeply hidden
than anywhere else, even with Marcel's simple confession of a hidden
purpose, secret movements, she had found a man before whom her woman's
heart had at once prostrated itself. It was amazing even to her. She
found no explanation even in her moments of heart searching. More than
that she had no desire to explain or excuse. The wonderful dream of life
had come true. She had yielded unbidden, and nothing she could think of
in life could undo the work that had been accomplished almost in the
first moments of their meeting.

So it was she watched the store of pelts mount up, she watched the
growing laze of the sun as it rose less and less above the horizon, and
she noted with dread the steady lengthening of the brief summer night.
Soon, far too soon, must come that parting which would rob her life of
the light which had so suddenly broken through its shadows.

And Marcel was no less troubled. But his nature refused to admit the end
which Keeko saw ahead. His was a splendid optimism that refused defeat.
He had the tryst he had established in his mind. And far back behind his
ingenuous eyes the purpose lurked that should necessity arise he would
cut every tie that bound his life, no matter at what cost, and pursue to
its logical end the wonderful dream that had been vouchsafed to him.

With determination such as this Marcel delayed the start of the return
journey to the last possible moment. And Keeko set no obstacle in the
way. She asked no margin of time for accident by the way. She was
prepared to accept all chances. The last moments before the permanent
freeze up must see her back at her home. For the rest this wild, uncouth
land was a radiant garden of delight to her.

But time waits no more for lovers than it waits for those whose hope is
dying with the years. In the Northern wilderness time must be calculated
almost to the second, and s