prayed in his dog way for Nada's return, and wondered why it was that
she left him so long. And the Night People held high carnival under the
yellow moon, and there was flight and terror and slaughter in the glow
of it--and Jolly Roger slept, and the wolf howled nearer, and the creek
chortled its incessant song of running water, and in the end Peter's
eyes closed, and a red-eyed ermine peeped over the sill into the man-and
dog-scented stillness of the outlaw's cabin.

For many days after this first night in the cabin, Peter did not see
Nada. There was more rain, and the creek flooded higher, so that each
time Jolly Roger went over to Cragg's Ridge he took his life in his
hands in fording the stream. Peter saw no one but Jolly Roger, and at
the end of the second week he was going about on his mended leg. But
there would always be a limp in his gait, and always his right hind-foot
would leave a peculiar mark in the trail.

These two weeks of helplessness were an education in Peter's life and
were destined to leave their mark upon him always. He learned to know
Jolly Roger, not alone from seeing events, but through an intuitive
instinct that grew swiftly somewhere in his shrewd head. This instinct,
given widest scope in these weeks of helplessness, developed faster than
any other in him, until in the end, he could judge Jolly Roger's humor
by the sound of his approaching footsteps. Never was there a waking hour
in which he was not fighting to comprehend the mystery of the change
that had come over his life. He knew that Nada was gone, and each day
that passed put her farther away from him, yet he also sensed the fact
that Jolly Roger went to her, and when the outlaw returned to the cabin
Peter was filled with a yearning hope that Nada was returning with him.

But gradually Peter came to think less about Nada, and more about Jolly
Roger, until at last his heart beat with a love for this man which was
greater than all other things in his world. And in these days Jolly
Roger found in Peter's comradeship and growing understanding a
comforting outlet for the things which at times consumed him. Peter saw
it all--hours when Jolly Roger's voice and laughter filled the cabin
with cheer and happiness, and others when his face was set in grim
lines, with that hard, far-away look in his eyes that Peter could never
quite make out. It was at such times, when Jolly Roger held a choking
grip on the love in his heart, that he told Peter