dear--" her voice broke as her shaking hands tried to assist him.
"We must go home, Shane. Come now." As if he were a child she coaxed
and encouraged the stunned man until he rose painfully, swayed, and
steadied himself against her. After a lurching step or two he managed to
keep his feet and in silence that struck to her heart, he suffered her to
lead him along through the soft, drizzling rain.

Ellen found only Harlan at the cabin. Without a question the young man
sprang to her assistance. He helped Shane into the house and to bed.

The last of the antiseptic had been used for Kobuk. Ellen ran for the
clear water from the hard-wood ashes--the Indian antiseptic which Kayak
Bill had induced her to make, and while she held the basin Harlan washed
the blood from her husband's face. The sight of the wound sickened her.
Just below Shane's right eye was a livid gash two inches long.

What could she do? In some way stitches must be taken to draw the edges
together, but how? She had nothing but ordinary needles and thread. She
blamed herself bitterly for leaving Katleean without a medicine chest. A
moment she thought of that one, ordered from the States, which was to
arrive on the _Hoonah_. Then again she set her mind to the solution of
the problem before her. . . . It came to her in a flash, one of Kayak
Bill's tales of an Eskimo woman's ingenuity!

"Gregg!" She spoke firmly. "Hand me the scissors." She took the
hairpins from her hair and it fell in a heavy coil to her waist. Harlan
eyed her as though he feared she had suddenly gone insane when she cut a
strand of hair and held it up to him.

"We'll boil this and some needles, Gregg," she continued quietly, "and
when they are sterilized you must help me put the stitches in this
wound." . . .

Half an hour later it was over. Shane lay back on his pillow. Ellen
watched beside him stroking his hand which lay twitching on the coverlet.
Something in the outline of her husband's long, still body under the
blankets chilled her with foreboding. Heretofore the thought of hunger
only had been with her. Now, should sickness or further accidents come
upon them . . . Should Shane develop blood-poisoning . . .

Like one doomed Ellen's eyes sought the wall calendar. NOVEMBER 1 met
her gaze with the force of a blow. The _Hoonah_ was already two weeks
overdue!

Suddenly she bent and rested her head against the blankets, pressing her
quivering lips fiercely, pas