sickness that infected the station, accepted it without demur.

"It rather looks as if it were my job, doesn't it?" she said. "I am
willing, anyway to do my best."

Ralston looked at her with a gleam of approval, but the Colonel drew her
aside to remonstrate.

"It's not fit for you. You'll be ill yourself. If Ralston weren't nearly
at his wit's end he'd never dream of allowing it."

But Stella heard the protest with a smile. "Believe me, I am only too
glad to be able to do something useful for a change," she assured him.
"As to being ill myself, I will promise not to behave so badly as that."

"You're a brick, my dear," said Colonel Mansfield. "I wish there were
more like you. Mind you take plenty of quinine!" With which piece of
fatherly advice he left her with the determination to keep an eye on her
and see that Ralston did not work her too hard.

Stella, however, had no fears on her own account. She went to her task
resolute and undismayed, feeling herself actually indispensable for
almost the first time in her life. Her influence upon Monck was beyond
dispute. She alone possessed the power to calm him in his wildest
moments, and he never failed to recognize her or to control himself to a
certain extent in her presence.

The attack was a sharp one, and for a while Ralston was more uneasy than
he cared to admit. But Monck's constitution was a good one, and after
three days of acute illness the fever began to subside. Tommy was by