re.
For perhaps the first time since the iron of life had entered into her
woman's soul she wanted to fall to a-weeping. In her speechlessness
tears actually rose to her eyes. She was weary, weary of limb with the
hardship of her journey. But now, in the reaction of Steve's welcome,
she realized, too, an utter weariness of mind. But her tears were saved
from overflowing. She looked to the smiling Marcel, and, with a little
helpless gesture, held out her hands.

It was all so unlike the woman who had faced every hardship on the
trail. It was all so unlike the strong courage which Marcel knew. He
caught her hands in his, and drew her to his side. Then, together, they
passed on to the store, while Steve's eyes followed them, and the
Indians remained at the work they had been set.

Once Keeko and Marcel had vanished within the store there was no longer
need for disguise. Steve's smile passed out of his eyes. A great light
of startled wonder took its place. Unconsciously he turned in the
direction of the store-house, concealing its great burden of
Adresol--and that other.

For a while he stood there. Then a sound broke from him. It was a
single, low-muttered word.

"Keeko!"

He moved away. He passed on to the open gateway of the stockade and
gazed far out towards the south-west. The sunlight upon the melting snow
was well-nigh blinding. But it troubled him not at all. His eyes were no
longer seeing. They were absorbed in a deep contemplation, visualizing
scenes that rose up at him out of the dim, distant past. He was thinking
of that moment of parting, when he had gazed down into the great blue
eyes of his baby girl as she was held up to him by her erring mother.

"Keeko!" he muttered again. "Coqueline!" Then, after a long, almost
interminable pause: "Nita!"

CHAPTER XXI

THE GREAT REWARD

Years ago Steve had drunk to the dregs a despair that left life shorn of
everything but a desolate existence. The effect of that time had
remained in him. It would remain so long as he lived. But it was a
reverse of the picture which despairing human nature usually presents.
It had deepened the reserve of a nature at all times undemonstrative. It
had hardened a will that was already of an iron quality. It had deepened
and broadened a fine understanding of human nature, and finally it had
succeeded in mellowing a tolerance that had always been his. For him
those bitter moments had proved to be the cleansing fires which h