ed 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 did not make a third. And outside, after a time, he heard the
Night People rousing themselves. They were very cautious, these Night
People, for unlike the creatures of the dawn, waking to greet the
sun with song and happiness, most of them were sharp-fanged and
long-clawed-rovers and pirates of the great wilderness, ready to kill.
And this, too, Peter sensed through the generations of northland dog
that was in him. He heard a wolf howl, coming faintly through the night
from miles away, and something told him it was not a dog. From