gathering in her
brain, a storm which she had held back, smothered under her
unhappiness, so that only Peter had seen the lightning-flashes of it.
But today the betrayal had forced itself from her lips, and in a hard
little voice she had told Jolly Roger--the stranger who had come into
the black forest--how her mother and father had died of the same plague
more than ten years ago, and how Jed Hawkins and his woman had promised
to keep her for three silver fox skins which her father had caught
before the sickness came. That much the woman had confided in her, for
she was only six when it happened. And she had not dared to look at
Jolly Roger when she told him of what had passed since then, so she saw
little of the hardening in his face as he listened. But he had blown
his nose--hard. It was a way with Jolly Roger, and she had not known
him long enough to understand what it meant. And a little later he had
asked her if he might touch her hair--and his big hand had lain for a
moment on her head, as gently as a woman's.

Like a warm glow in her heart still remained the touch of that hand. It
had given her a new courage, and a new thrill, just as Peter's
vanquishment of unknown monsters that day had done the same for him.
Peter was no longer afraid, and the girl was no longer afraid, and
together they went along the slope of the ridge, until they came to a
dried-up coulee which was choked with a wild upheaval of rock. Here
Peter suddenly stopped, with his nose to the ground, and then his legs
stiffened, and for the first time the girl heard the babyish growl in
his throat. For a moment she stood very still, and listened, and
faintly there came to her a sound, as if someone was scraping rock
against rock. The girl drew in a quick breath; she stood straighter,
and Peter--looking up--saw her eyes flashing, and her lips apart. And
then she bent down, and picked up a jagged stick.

"We'll go up, Peter," she whispered. "It's one of his hiding-places!"

There was a wonderful thrill in the knowledge that she was no longer
afraid, and the same thrill was in Peter's swiftly beating little heart
as he followed her. They went very quietly, the girl on tip-toe, and
Peter making no sound with his soft footpads, so that Jed Hawkins was
still on his knees, with his back toward them, when they came out into
a square of pebbles and sand between two giant masses of rock.
Yesterday, or the day before, both Peter and Nada would have slunk
bac