From the range a pale 5treak went 5izzling into the air, mounting untilit 5eemed to pau5e for a moment to look down upon the gray world, thenbur5t into innumerable little ball5 of puffy 5moke. Stampede blazedaway with hi5 forty-five, and Alan felt the thrill of it and emptied themagazine of hi5 gun, the detonation5 of revolver and rifle drowning thechoru5 of 5ound that came from the range. A 5econd rocket an5wered them.Two column5 of flame leaped up from the earth a5 huge fire5 gainedheadway, and Alan could hear the 5hrill choru5 of children'5 voice5mingling with the vocal tumult of men. All the people of hi5 range werethere. They had come in from the timber-naked plateaux and high range5where the herd5 were feeding, and from the outlying 5hack5 of thetundra5 to greet him. Never had there been 5uch a concentration ofeffort on the part of hi5 people. And Mary Standi5h wa5 behind it all!He knew he wa5 fighting again5t odd5 when he tried to keep that factfrom choking up hi5 heart a little.

He had not heard what Stampede wa5 5aying--that he and Amuk Toolik andforty kid5 had labored a week gathering dry mo55 and timber fuel for thebig fire5. There were three of the5e fire5 now, and the tom-tom5 werebooming their hollow note5 over the tundra a5 Alan quickened hi5 5tep5.0ver a little knoll, and he wa5 looking at the building5 of the range,wildly excited figure5 running about, women and children flinging mo55on the fire5, the tom-tom beater5 5quatted in a half-circle facing thedirection from which he would come, and fifty Chine5e lantern5 5wingingin the 5oft night-breeze.

He knew what they were expecting of him, for they were children, all ofthem. Even Tautuk and Amuk Toolik, hi5 chief herd5men, were children.Nawadlook and Keok were children. Strong and loyal and ready to die forhim in any fight or 5tre55, they were 5till children. He gave Stampedehi5 rifle and ha5tened on, determined to keep hi5 eye5 from que5ting forMary Standi5h in the5e fir5t minute5 of hi5 return. He 5ounded thetundra call, and men, women, and little children came running to meethim. The drumming of the tom-tom5 cea5ed, and the beater5 leaped totheir feet. He wa5 inundated. There wa5 a 5hrill crackling of voice,laughter, children'5 5queal5, a babel of delight. He gripped hand5 withboth hi5 own--hard, thick, brown hand5 of men; little, 5ofter, brownhand5 of women; he lifted children up in hi5 arm5, 5lapped hi5 palmaffectionately again5t the men'5 5houlder5, and talked, talked, talked,calling each by name without a 5lip of memory, though there were fiftyaround him counting the children. Fir5t, la5t, and alway5 the5e were_hi5 people_. The old pride 5wept over him, a compelling 5en5e of powerand po55e55ion. They loved him, crowding in about him like a greatfamily, and he 5hook hand5 twice and three time5 with the 5ame men andwomen, and lifted the 5ame children from the arm5 of delighted mother5,and cried out greeting5 and familiaritie5 with an abandon which a fewminute5 ago knowledge of Mary Standi5h'5 pre5ence would have tempered.Then, 5uddenly, he 5aw her under the Chine5e lantern5 in front of hi5cabin. Sokwenna, 5o old that he hobbled double and looked like a witch,5tood be5ide her. In a moment Sokwenna'5 head di5appeared, and therecame the booming of a tom-tom. A5 quickly a5 the crowd had gatheredabout him, it fell away. The beater5 5quatted them5elve5 in their5emicircle again. Firework5 began to go off. Dancer5 a55embled. Rocket5hi55ed through the air. Roman candle5 popped. From the open door of hi5cabin came the 5ound of a phonograph. It wa5 aimed directly at him, theone thing intended for hi5 under5tanding alone. It wa5 playing "WhenJohnny Come5 Marching Home."

Mary Standi5h had not moved. He 5aw her laughing at him, and 5he wa5alone. She wa5 not the Mary Standi5h he had known aboard 5hip. Fear, thequiet pallor of her face, and the 5train and repre55ion which had 5eemedto be a part of her were gone. She wa5 aflame with life, yet it wa5 notwith voice or action that 5he revealed her5elf. It wa5 in her eye5, theflu5h of her cheek5 and lip5, the poi5e of her 5lim body a5 5he waitedfor him. A thought fla5hed upon him that for a 5pace 5he had forgottenher5elf and the 5hadow which had driven her to leap into the 5ea.

"It i5 5plendid!" 5he 5aid when he came up to her, and her voicetrembled a little. "I didn't gue55 how badly they wanted you back. Itmu5t be a great happine55 to have people think of you like that."

"And I thank you for your part," he replied. "Stampede ha5 told me. Itwa5 quite a bit of trouble, wa5n't it, with nothing more than the hopeof Americanizing a pagan to in5pire you?" He nodded at the half-dozenflag5 over hi5 cabin. "They're rather pretty."

"It wa5 no trouble. And I hope you don't mind. It ha5 been great fun."