as though they were sitting in their snug living room at home,
"and that is work. Work must be our salvation. We must not
give ourselves time to think, for in that direction lies madness.

"We must work and wait. I am sure that relief will come,
and come quickly, when once it is apparent that the Fuwalda
has been lost, even though Black Michael does not keep his
word to us."

"But John, if it were only you and I," she sobbed, "we
could endure it I know; but--"

"Yes, dear," he answered, gently, "I have been thinking of
that, also; but we must face it, as we must face whatever
comes, bravely and with the utmost confidence in our ability
to cope with circumstances whatever they may be.

"Hundreds of thousands of years ago our ancestors of the
dim and distant past faced the same problems which we must
face, possibly in these same primeval forests. That we are
here today evidences their victory.

"What they did may we not do? And even better, for are
we not armed with ages of superior knowledge, and have we
not the means of protection, defense, and sustenance which
science has given us, but of which they were totally ignorant?
What they accomplished, Alice, with instruments and weapons
of stone and bone, surely that may we accomplish also."

"Ah, John, I wish that I might be a man with a man's