quer this monstrous scourge, which is the single cause
of more than one death in every ten."

And then, the deep silence which had marked the closing words:

"Gentlemen, I can cure consumption," came the simple declaration. "If
there are those among you who value Science more than gain; who are
willing to dare with me, willing to pay the extreme price, if
necessary--if there are any such among you, and I believe there are,
meet with me in my rooms this evening."

To the eight who accepted that invitation, Dr. De Young disclosed the
details of his Great Experiment. It included, among many other things
which no one but a physician can appreciate, the lending of their
bodies to the Experiment's exemplification. Of the eight, two had
agreed to follow him to the end. Each of the three had placed his
house in order, and here they were, nearing that end, whatever it was
to be.

An hour passed, and now ahead in the distance a rough shanty came into
view. It was the only house in sight, and the three men knew it was
to be theirs. In silence they drew up where the men were unpacking
their goods.

"Good morning for ducks--saw a big flock of mallards back here in a
pond," observed the man who took their team.

The three doctors alighted without answering, and watching them, the
man stroked a stubby red whisker in meditation.

"Lord, they're a frost!" he commented.

* * * * *

Night had come, and the stars shone early from a sky yet light and
warm. In the low places the waters sang louder than before, with the
increase of a day's thawing. Looking away, the white spots were
smaller and the brown patches larger; otherwise, all was the same, the
prairie of yesterday, of to-day, and to-morrow.

Tired with a day of settling, the three men stood in the doorway and
for the first time viewed the country at night. They were not talkers
at best, and now the immensity of the broad prairies held them silent.
The daily struggle of life, the activity and rivalry and ambition
which before to-night had seemed so great to these city-bred men, here
alone with Nature and Nature's God, where none other might see,
assumed their true worth. The tangled web of life loosened and many
foreign things caught and held therein, fell out. Man, introspecting,
saw himself at his real worth, and was not proud.

The absolute quiet, so unusual, made them wakeful, and though tired,
they sat long in the doorway, s