THE SUMMIT OF SUCCESS There followed three years of silence, three years of waiting for that message which never came.

As though she had dropped into an ocean of oblivion, Beth Norvell disappeared.

Winston had no longer the slightest hope that a word from her would ever come, and there were times when he wondered if it was not better so--if, after all, she had not chosen rightly.

Love untarnished lived in his heart; yet, as she had told him out in the desert, love could never change the deed.

That remained--black, grim, unblotted, the unalterable death stain.