an
or the utterly reckless could have committed such a folly.

With every sense alert, those senses that were so keenly instinct with
the perception of the animal world, she searched the shadows within the
stockade, and the distance beyond its open gateway. There was no sign of
the marauder she looked for. But nevertheless the chorus of the canine
displeasure and protest went on. At last she pulled the door to behind
her and passed out into the night.

Once in the open her search was swift and keen. The great enclosure
yielded nothing to disturb, so she passed on to the gateway, where the
barking of the aged dogs had no power to confuse her observation.

The coldly gleaming sky shone radiantly upon the white-clad earth. The
calm of the world was unbroken. Even the wind was dead flat, and not a
sigh came from the woods which hid up the dreaming Sleepers. There was
nothing. Nothing at all. And she determined to return and to silence the
foolish old trail dogs with the weight of a rawhide. Just a few moments
longer she waited searching with eyes and ears, then she turned back.

But her purpose remained unfulfilled. She stood seemingly rooted to the
spot while her ears listened to the faint distant shout of a human
voice. It was prolonged. It had nothing in it of a cry of distress. It
was the call of a voice suggesting a simple signal of approach.

For an instant her heart seemed to leap into her throat. Then, in a wild
surge, it started to hammer as though seeking to free itself from the
bonds that held it. That call. She knew it. There could be no mistake.
Nor could she mistake the voice that uttered it. It was the voice of
Steve. It was the great return of which her faith had assured her. And
high and shrill she flung back her answer, with all the power of her
lungs and a grateful heart.

* * * * *

The greeting had been all An-ina had ever dreamed it. It had been even
more, for she had gazed into steady grey eyes shining with the light of
triumph.

They were standing in the store where the stove, banked for the long,
cold night, was radiating its comforting warmth. Steve, sturdy,
unemotional, was replying to the question which had come with the
passing of the woman's greeting.

"We're loaded right down, and the dogs are well-nigh beat," he said, in
his quiet way. "Guess that's not the reason they're way back camped
while I got on to home though. It's the green weed in full bloom,