out in the North Pacific ninety miles from the nearest land;
an island uninhabited and completely surrounded by dangerous reefs and
shoals; shunned by ships and spoken of as a death trap by sailors. But
one tree, other than alder and willow, grew upon it. Three hundred
feet above sea-level on the high, flat top, a lone and stunted spruce
rose from the tundra and breasted the heavy gales that swept the ocean.
For firewood there were but the drift logs of the beach. There were no
animals of any kind. The foxes and a pet cub bear taken there by the
Alaska Fur and Trading Company at the time of the fox-farm experiment
had been killed off by passing whalers who were sometimes forced ashore
for water.

Shane had entertained no idea of allowing his wife and family to
accompany him to the Island. All his powers of persuasion had been
used to induce Ellen to stay at Katleean with her sister and Loll as
guests of the White Chief until the tall steamer going south should
take them back to the States. The trader, Ellen knew, had taken this
arrangement for granted and she was certain she detected something of
baffled rage in him when she informed him on her last visit to the
shore, that since she could not dissuade her husband from going to the
Island of Kon Klayu she and her family would accompany him.

It was in vain the White Chief pointed out to her that there were not
provisions enough at the post to supply Shane with a complete winter
outfit. He must sail at once for Kon Klayu in order to prepare for the
winter's work, and the autumn steamer bringing more supplies was not
due for six weeks. It was in vain Kilbuck assured her that he,
himself, would take her to the Island later on when he went over with
the remainder of Shane's outfit after the arrival of the steamer.
Ellen was obdurate in her decision and once having committed herself
she became a different woman. Whatever misgivings she held in regard
to the enterprise she kept to herself. She plunged whole-heartedly
into the preparations for the journey, becoming at once the practical
director of the commissary. She looked carefully over the stock of
goods at the trading-post and obtained far more in the way of supplies
than the easy-going Shane, inclined to trust to the trader's judgment,
would have done. And Kilbuck, for some reason, seemed disinclined to
furnish even as much as his stock would allow.

For the past week Ellen eluded every effort made by the W