had robbed it of life. Later, with leisure, and when the desire
prompted, Steve would dispose of it as he might dispose of any other
refuse that displeased or disgusted him.

To a man of lesser hardihood, of less singleness of purpose such an
attitude must have been impossible. But Steve had learned his lessons of
life in a ruthless school. He had no thought for any leniency towards an
enemy, alive or dead. He had no reverence for the empty shell, which,
in life, had contained nothing but vileness.

To the last he fought out the battle of physical endurance, and he won
out. It was a bitter, deadly struggle in which will alone turned the
scale. When the last bale of Adresol was packed, and the door of the
store-house was made secure, its treasure in the keeping of its dead
guardian, Steve knew that he was about to pay the price. The final
removal of his mask found him an extremely sick man. And for two weeks
he was forced to fight against the effect of the deadly toxins he had
been inhaling for so long. He had saved others from the risk of handling
the Adresol. Now he was called upon to pay for his self-sacrifice.

In her silent, unquestioning fashion An-ina understood, and, for nearly
two weeks, she watched and ministered to the man of her love with
smiling-eyed devotion. Steve never admitted his condition, and An-ina
never reminded him of it. That was their way. But never in all their
years of life together had the woman been more surely her man's devoted
slave. Her every service was an expression of the happiness which the
privilege yielded her. Every thought behind her dark eyes was a prayer
for the well-being of her man.

For all the inroad the poisons had made upon him, Steve's robust,
healthy body was no easy prey, and, slowly but surely, it won its way
and drove back a defeated enemy. The spirit of the man was invincible,
and then, too, his knowledge of the drugs, both Adresol and those
antitoxins which he had been forced to oppose to it, was well-nigh
complete. The dead father of Marcel had left him in no uncertainty. He
had equipped him perfectly through his writings.

So, with the complete break-up of winter Steve was once more in his
place at the helm of his little vessel. He was there calm, strong,
resourceful, ready to deal with every matter that came along as the rush
of the open season's business descended upon the fort.

It, was as well. The rush was considerable as the Sleepers roused from
their