Back in the cabin Peter was sniffing at the crack under Nada’s door, and listening to her movement.  For a long time he had heard her, but not once had she opened the door.  And he wondered, after that, why Oosimisk and her husband and Father John piled evergreens all about, until the cabin looked like the little jackpine trysting-place down at Cragg’s Ridge, even to the soft carpet of grass on the floor, and flowers scattered all about.

Hopeless of understanding what it meant, he went outside, and waited in the warm May-day sun until his master came back through the clearing.  What happened after that puzzled him greatly.  When he followed Jolly Roger into the cabin Mistoos and the Leaf Bud were seated in chairs, their hands folded, and Father John stood behind a small table on which lay an open book, and he was looking at his watch when they came in.  He nodded, and smiled, and very clearly Peter saw his master gulp, as if swallowing something that was in his throat.  And the ruddiness had gone completely out of his smooth-shaven cheeks.  It was the first time Peter had seen his master so clearly afraid, and from his burrow in the evergreens he growled under his breath, eyeing the open door with sudden thought of an enemy.

And then Father John was tapping at Nada’s door.

He went back to the table and waited, and as the knob of the door turned very slowly Jolly Roger swallowed again, and took a step toward it.  It opened, and Nada stood there.  And Jolly Roger gave a little cry, so low that Peter could just hear it, as he held out his hands to her.

For Nada was no longer the Nada who had come to him in Father John’s clearing.  She was the Nada of Cragg’s Ridge, the Nada of that wild night of storm when he had fled into the north.  Her hair fell about her, as in the old days when Peter and she had played together among the rocks and flowers, and her wedding dress was faded and torn, for it was the dress she had worn that night of despair when she sent her message to Peter’s master, and on her little feet were shoes broken and disfigured by her flight in those last hours of her mighty effort to go with the man she loved.  In Father John’s eyes, as she stood there, was a great astonishment; but in Jolly Roger’s there came such a joy that, in answer to it, Nada went straight into his arms and held up her lips to be kissed.

Her cheeks were very pink when she stood beside McKay, with Father John before them, the open book in his hands; and then, as her long lashes drooped over her eyes, and her breath came a little more quickly, she saw Peter staring at her questioningly, and made a little motion to him with her hand.  He went to her, and her fingers touched his head as Father John began speaking.  Peter looked up, and listened, and was very quiet in these moments.  Jolly Roger was staring straight at the balsam-decked wall opposite him, but there was something mighty strong and proud in the way he held his head, and the fear had gone completely out of his eyes.  And Nada stood very close to him, so that her brown head lightly touched his shoulder and he could see the silken shimmer of loose tresses which with sweet intent she had let fall over his arm.  And her little fingers clung tightly to his thumb, as on that blessed night when they had walked together across the plain below Cragg’s Ridge, with the moon lighting their way.