his
arm.

"Anybody can see the scar I put there when I cut out the poison," he
said to himself, at last. "Nobody will see the scar on my soul, but I'll
cut out the poison just the same. I did not save that baby boy from the
rattlesnakes only to let him be crushed by the serpent in me. Trench was
right, the S over the doorway down there stands for Service as well
as for Sacrifice and Strife. Dr. Fenneben says they all enter into the
winning of a Master's Degree. Shall I ever get mine earned, I wonder?"

He looked once more at the west, all a soft purple, gray-veiled with
misty shadows, save over the place where the sun went out one shaft of
deepest rose hue tipped with golden flame was cleaving its way toward
the darkening zenith. Then he closed the window and went downstairs and
out into the beautiful December twilight.

In all Kansas in that evening hour no man breathed deeper of the sweet,
pure air, nor walked with firmer stride, than the man who had gone out
under the carved symbol of the college doorway, Victor Burleigh of the
junior class at Sunrise.

SUPREMACY

Make thyself free of Manhood's guild,
Pull down thy barns and greater build,
Pluck from the sunset's fruit of gold,
Glean from the heavens and ocean old,
From fireside lone and trampling street
Let thy life garner daily wheat,
The epic of a man rehearse,
Be something better than thy verse,
And thou shalt hear the life-blood flow
From farthest stars to grass-blades low.
--LOWELL

CHAPTER XIII. THE MAN BELOW THE SMOKE

_And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors_.

ELINOR WREAM was standing at the gate as Victor Burleigh came striding
up the street.

"Where are you going so fast, Victor?" she asked. "Everybody is in a
rush this evening. We had a telegram from the East this afternoon. Uncle
Joshua is very ill, and Uncle Lloyd had to get away on short notice. Old
Bond Saxon went by just now, but," lowering her voice, "he was awfully
drunk and slipped along like a snake."

"Have you seen Bug?" Victor asked. "Dennie says he left a little while
ago to find his ball he lost out north this afternoon. He wouldn't tell
where, because he had promised not to."

"No, I have not seen him. But don't be uneasy about Bug. He never plays
near the river, nor the railroad tracks, and he always comes in at the
right time," Elinor said, comfortingly.

"I know he always has before, but I want to find him, anyh