“With your hair like that you are my Margaret of Anjou, and the other way—­with it down you are my little Nada of Cragg’s Ridge.  And I—­I don’t quite understand why God should be so good to me.”

And this day Peter was trying in his dumb way to analyze the change.  The touch of Nada’s hand thrilled him, as it did a long time ago, and still he sensed the difference.  Her voice was even softer when she put her cheek down to his whiskered face and talked to him, but in it he missed that which he could not quite bring back clearly through the lapse of time—­the childish comradeship of her.  Yet he began to worship her anew, even more fiercely than he had loved the Nada of old.  He was content now to lie with his nose touching her foot or dress; but when in the sunset of early evening she went into her room, and came out a little later with her curling hair clouding her shoulders and breast, and tied with a faded ribbon she had brought from Cragg’s Ridge, he danced about her, yelping joyously, and she accepted the challenge in a wild race with him to the edge of the clearing.

Panting and flushed she ran back to Jolly Roger, and rested in his arms.

And it was McKay, with his face half hidden in her riotous hair, who saw a figure come suddenly out of the forest at the far end of the clearing.  It was Father John.  He saw him pause for an instant, and then stagger toward them, swaying as if about to fall.

The sudden stopping of his breath—­the tightening of his arms—­ drew Nada’s shining eyes to his face, and then she, too, saw the little old Missioner as he swayed and staggered across the clearing.  With a cry she was out of McKay’s arms and running toward him.

Father John was leaning heavily upon her when McKay came up.  His face was tense and his breath came in choking gasps.  But he tried to smile as he clutched a hand at his breast.

“I have hurried,” he said, making a great effort to speak calmly, “and I am—­winded—­”

He drew in a deep breath, and looked at Jolly Roger.

“Roger—­I have hurried to tell you—­Breault is coming.  He cannot be far behind me.  Possibly half a mile, or a mile—­”

In the thickening dusk he took Nada’s white face between his hands.

“I find—­at last—­that I was mistaken, child,” he said, very calmly now.  “I believe it is not God’s will that you remain to be taken by Breault.  You must go.  There is no time to lose.  If Breault does not stumble off the trail in this gloom he will be here in a few minutes.  Come.”

Not a word did Nada say as they went to the cabin, and McKay saw her tense face as pale as an ivory cameo in the twilight.  But something in the up-tilt of her chin and the poise of her head assured him she was prepared, and unafraid.

In the cabin the Leaf Bud met them, and to her Nada spoke quickly.  There was understanding between them, and Oosimisk dragged in a filled pack from the kitchen while Nada ran into her room and came out with the bundle.