y I said that same thing--five years. But I found her
selfish, Roger, very selfish--and set upon her desire beyond all
reason. And it was she who asked first those very questions I have
asked you tonight. 'What are five years?' she demanded of me, defying
my logic. 'What are five years--or ten--or twenty, _if I know I am to
have him after that_?' Yes, she was selfish, Roger. Just that great is
her love for you."

"Dear God in Heaven," breathed Jolly Roger, and stopped, his eyes
staring wide at the stars.

"And after that, after I had given in to her selfishness, Roger, she
planned how we--she and I--would live very near to the place where they
imprisoned you, and how each day some sight or sign should pass between
you, and the baby--"

"The baby, Father?"

"Thus it seems she dreams, Roger. She, in the wilfulness of her desire
and selfishness--"

With a choking cry Roger bowed his face in his hands.

For a moment Father John was silent. And then he said, so very low that
it was almost a whisper,

"I have passed many years in the wilderness, Roger, many years trying
to look into the hearts of people--and of God. And this--this love of
Nada's--is the greatest of all the miracles I have witnessed in a life
that is now reaching to its three score and five. Do you see the wonder
of it, son? And does it make you happy, and fearless now?"

He did not wait for an answer, but turned slowly and went in the
direction of the cabin, leaving Roger alone under the thickening stars.
And McKay's face was like Father John's, filled with a strange and
wonderful radiance when he looked up. But with that light of happiness
was also the fiercer underglow of a great determination. For Nada--for
_the baby_--the worst should not happen; he breathed the thought aloud,
and in the words was a prayer that God might help him, and make
unnecessary the sacrifice from which Father John had taken the sting of
fear. And yet, if that sacrifice came, he saw clearly now that it would
not be a great tragedy but only a brief shadow cast over the undying
happiness in his soul. For they--_Nada and the baby_--would be
waiting--waiting--

Suddenly he was conscious of a sound very near, and he beheld Nada,
taller and slimmer and more beautiful than ever, it seemed to him, in
the starlight.

"I have told him," Father John had whispered to her only a moment
before. "I have told him, so that he will not fear prison--either for
himself or for you."

And