so big and strong, Mister Roger--"

Gently he freed his thumb from her fingers, and picked her up, and held
her high, so that she was against his breast and above the deepest of
the water. Lightly at first Nada's arms lay about his shoulders, but as
the flood began to rush higher and she felt him straining against
it,--her arms tightened, until the clasp of them was warm and thrilling
round Jolly Roger's neck. She gave a big gasp of relief when he stood
her safely down upon her feet on the other side. And then again she
reached out, and found his hand, and twined her fingers about his big
thumb--and Jolly Roger went on with her over the plain toward Cragg's
Ridge, dripping wet, just as the rim of the moon began to rise over the
edge of the eastern forests.

CHAPTER IV

It seemed an interminable wait to Peter, back in the cabin. Jolly Roger
had put out the light, and when the moon came up the glow of it did not
come into the dark room where Peter lay, for the open door was to the
west, and curtains were drawn closely at both windows. But through the
door he could see the first mellowing of the night, and after that the
swift coming of a soft, golden radiance which swallowed all darkness
and filled his world with the ghostly shadows which seemed alive, yet
never made a sound. It was a big, splendid moon this night, and Peter
loved the moon, though he had seen it only a few times in his three
months of life. It fascinated him more than the sun, for it was always
light when the sun came, and he had never seen the sun eat up darkness,
as the moon did. Its mystery awed him, but did not frighten. He could
not quite understand the strange, still shadows which were always
unreal when he nosed into them, and it puzzled him why the birds did
not fly about in the moon glow, and sing as they did in the day-time.
And something deep in him, many generations older than himself, made
his blood run faster when this thing that ate up darkness came creeping
through the sky, and he was filled with a yearning to adventure out
into the strange glow of it, quietly and stealthily, watching and
listening for things he had never seen or heard.

In the gloom of the cabin his eyes remained fixed steadily upon the
open door, and for a long time he listened only for the returning
footsteps of Jolly Roger and Nada. Twice he made efforts to drag
himself to the edge of the bunk, but the movement sent such a cutting
pain through him that he