from
the wrecked ship. We warmed and started the engine, broke the skids
loose from the ice, turned the plane around, and took off safely from
the tiny scrap of smooth ice.

Mildred seemed amazed and immensely delighted at the sensations of her
first trip aloft.

A few hours later we were landing beside the _Albatross_, in the
leaden blue sea beyond the ice barrier. Bluff Captain Harper greeted
us in amazed delight as we climbed to the deck.

"You're just in time!" he said. "The relief expedition we landed came
back a week ago. We had no idea you could still be alive, with only a
week's provisions. We were sailing to-morrow. But tell us! What
happened? Your passenger--"

"We just stopped to pick up my fiancee," Ray grinned. "Captain, may I
present Miss Mildred Meriden? We'll be wanting you to marry us right
away."

THE MENACE OF THE INSECT

It is possible that future study may tell man enough about insects to
enable him to eradicate them. This, however, is more than can be
reasonably expected, for the more we cultivate the earth the better we
make conditions for these enemies. The insect thrives on the work of
man. And having made conditions ideal for the insect, with great
expanses of cultivated food fitted to his needs, it is an optimist who
can believe that at the same time we can make other conditions which
will be so unfavorable as to cause him to disappear completely. The
two things do not go together.

The insect is much better fitted for life than is man. He can survive
long periods of famine, he can survive extremes of heat and cold. The
insect produces great numbers of young which have no long period of
infancy requiring the attention of the parents over a large part of
their life. Every function of the insect is directed toward the
propagation of the race and the use of minimum effort in every other
direction.

It is even possible in some cases, the water flea, for example, for
the female to produce young without the necessity of fertilization by
the male. In order to perform the necessary work to insure food
supplies for the winter other insects have developed highly
specialized workers, especially fitted to do particular kinds of
labor. Ants and termites are in this class.

If we examine the organization of insects closely we shall find but
one point at which they are vulnerable. This is in their lack of
ability to reason. True, there is considerable evidence to support the
belief that some