ame back through the clearing.
What happened after that puzzled him greatly. When he followed Jolly
Roger into the cabin Mistoos and the Leaf Bud were seated in chairs,
their hands folded, and Father John stood behind a small table on which
lay an open book, and he was looking at his watch when they came in. He
nodded, and smiled, and very clearly Peter saw his master gulp, as if
swallowing something that was in his throat. And the ruddiness had gone
completely out of his smooth-shaven cheeks. It was the first time Peter
had seen his master so clearly afraid, and from his burrow in the
evergreens he growled under his breath, eyeing the open door with
sudden thought of an enemy.

And then Father John was tapping at Nada's door.

He went back to the table and waited, and as the knob of the door
turned very slowly Jolly Roger swallowed again, and took a step toward
it. It opened, and Nada stood there. And Jolly Roger gave a little cry,
so low that Peter could just hear it, as he held out his hands to her.

For Nada was no longer the Nada who had come to him in Father John's
clearing. She was the Nada of Cragg's Ridge, the Nada of that wild
night of storm when he had fled into the north. Her hair fell about
her, as in the old days when Peter and she had played together among
the rocks and flowers, and her wedding dress was faded and torn, for it
was the dress she had worn that night of despair when she sent her
message to Peter's master, and on her little feet were shoes broken and
disfigured by her flight in those last hours of her mighty effort to go
with the man she loved. In Father John's eyes, as she stood there, was
a great astonishment; but in Jolly Roger's there came such a joy that,
in answer to it, Nada went straight into his arms and held up her lips
to be kissed.

Her cheeks were very pink when she stood beside McKay, with Father John
before them, the open book in his hands; and then, as her long lashes
drooped over her eyes, and her breath came a little more quickly, she
saw Peter staring at her questioningly, and made a little motion to him
with her hand. He went to her, and her fingers touched his head as
Father John began speaking. Peter looked up, and listened, and was very
quiet in these moments. Jolly Roger was staring straight at the
balsam-decked wall opposite him, but there was something mighty strong
and proud in the way he held his head, and the fear had gone completely
out of his eyes. And Nada