?"

"No, I'm going on," said Jolly Roger, the blood in his veins running
with the chill of water. "How far before I come to the end of fire?"

"Ten miles on. It started this side of the next settlement."

Jolly Roger drew back and the door closed, and standing on the railroad
once more he saw the light go out and after that the occasional barking
of the settler's dog grew fainter and fainter behind them.

He felt a great weariness in his bones and body now. With hope struck
down the exhaustion of two nights and a day without sleep seized upon
him and his feet plodded more and more slowly over the uneven ties of
the road. Even in his weariness he fought madly against the thought that
Nada was dead and he repeated the word "impossible--impossible" so often
that it ran in sing-song through his brain. And he could not keep away
from him the white, thin face of the Missioner, who had promised on his
faith In God to care for Nada, and who had passed the settler's cabin
ALONE.

Another two hours they went on and then came the first of the green
timber. Under the shelter of some balsams Jolly Roger found a resting
place and there they waited for the break of dawn. Peter stretched out
and slept. But Jolly Roger sat with his head and shoulders against the
bole of a tree, and not until the light of the moon was driven away by
the darkness that preceded dawn by an hour or two did his eyes close in
restless slumber. He was roused by the wakening twitter of birds and in
the cold water of a creek that ran near he bathed his face and hands.
Peter wondered why there was no fire and no breakfast this morning.

The settlement was only a little way ahead and it was very early when
they reached it. People were still in their beds and out of only one
chimney was smoke rising into the clear calm of the breaking day. From
this cabin a young man came, and stood for a moment after he had closed
the door, yawning and stretching his arms and looking up to see what
sort of promise the sky held for the day. After that he went to a stable
of logs, and Jolly Roger followed him there.

He was unlike the bearded settler, and nodded with a youthful smile of
cheer.

"Good morning," he said. "You're traveling early, and--"

He looked more keenly as his eyes took in Jolly Roger's boots and
clothes, and the gray pallor in his face.

"Just get in?" he asked kindly. "And--from the burnt country?"

"Yes, from the burnt country. I've been away a long