when he opened it, he stared at her in wide-eyed amazement. Wapi hung
outside when Dolores entered, and the door closed. "I know you think it
strange for me to come at this hour," she apologized, "but in this
terrible gloom I've lost all count of hours. They have no significance
for me any more. And I wanted to see you--alone."

She emphasized the word. And as she spoke, she loosened her coat and
threw back her hood, so that the glow of the lamp lit up the ruffled mass
of gold the hood had covered. She sat down without waiting for an
invitation, and Blake sat down opposite her with a narrow table between
them. Her face was flushed with cold and wind as she looked at him. Her
eyes were blue with the blue of a steady flame, and they met his own
squarely. She was not nervous. Nor was she afraid.

"Perhaps you can guess--why I have come?" she asked.

He was appraising her almost startling beauty with the lamp glow flooding
down on her. For a moment he hesitated; then he nodded, looking at her
steadily. "Yes, I think I know," he said quietly. "It's Captain Rydal. In
fact, I'm quite positive. It's an unusual situation, you know. Have I
guessed correctly?"

She nodded, drawing in her breath quickly and leaning a little toward
him, wondering how much he knew and how he had come by it.

"A very unusual situation," he repeated. "There's nothing in the world
that makes beasts out of men--most men--more quickly than an arctic
night, Mrs. Keith. And they're all beasts out there--now--all except your
husband, and he is contented because he possesses the one white woman
aboard ship. It's putting it brutally plain, but it's the truth, isn't