n of Roger and
Father John. But even in that bird-like swiftness with which she had
left them, Father John had caught the look in her eyes.

"I have made a mistake," he confessed humbly. "I have sinned, because
in her I have roused the temptation to urge you to fly away with
her--down there--south. She is a woman, and being a woman she has
infinite faith in Yellow Bird, for Yellow Bird helped to give you to
her. She believes--"

"And I--I--also believe," said McKay, staring at the green balsams.

"And yet--it is better for you to remain. God means that judgment and
happiness should come in their turn."

Jolly Roger rose to his feet, facing the south.

"It is a temptation, father. It would be hard to give her up--now. If
Breault would only wait a little while. But if he comes--_now_--"

He walked away slowly, following through the balsams where Nada and
Peter had gone. Father John watched him go, and a trembling smile came
to his lips when he was alone. In his heart he knew he was a coward,
and that these young people had been stronger than he. For in their
happiness and the faith which he had falsely built up in them they had
resigned themselves to the inevitable, while he, in these moments of
cowardice, had shown them the way to temptation. And yet as he stood
there, looking in the direction they had gone, he felt no remorse
because of what he had done, and a weight seemed to have lifted itself
from his shoulders.

For a time the more selfish instincts of the man rose in him, fighting
down the sacrificial humility of the great faith of which he was a
messenger. The new sensation thrilled him, and in its thrill he felt
his heart beating a little faster, and hope rising in him. Five years
were a long time--_for him_. That was the thought which kept repeating
itself over and over in his brain, and with it came that other thought,
that self-preservation was the first law of existence, and therefore
could not be a sin. Thus did Father John turn traitor to his spoken
words, though his calm and smiling face gave no betrayal of it when
Nada and Roger returned to the cabin an hour later, their arms filled
with red bakneesh vines and early wildflowers.

Nada's cheeks were as pink as the bakneesh, and her eyes as blue as the
rock-violets she wore on her breast.

And Father John knew that Jolly Roger was no longer oppressed by the
fear of a menace which he was helpless to oppose, for there was
something very confident i