nd Porter had taken advantage of the opportunity to tell her of
the interesting discovery which Breault had made--and to kiss her.
McKay stroked Peter's scrawny neck, and listened. He could no longer
hear the storm, and he wondered if the fury of it was spent.

Every few minutes he looked through the slit in the snow wall. The last
time, half an hour after Porter had returned to his blanket, Josephine
Tavish was sitting up. She was very wide awake. McKay watched her as
she rose slowly to her knees, and then to her feet. She bent over
Porter and Breault to make sure they were asleep, and then came
straight toward the door of his room.

He lay back on his blanket, with the fingers of one hand gripped
closely about Peter.

"Be quiet, boy," he whispered. "Be quiet."

He could see the shutting out of light at his door as the girl stood
there, listening for his breathing. He breathed heavily, and before he
closed his eyes he saw Josephine Tavish coming toward him. In a moment
she was bending over him. He could feel the soft caress of her loose
hair on his face and hands. Then she knelt quietly down beside him,
stroking Peter with her hand, and shook him lightly by the shoulder.

"Jolly Roger!" she whispered. "Jolly Roger McKay!"

He opened his eyes, looking up at the white face in the gloom.

"Yes," he replied softly. "What is it, Miss Tavish?"

He could hear the choking breath in her throat as her fingers tightened
at his shoulder. She bent her face still nearer to him, until her hair
cluttered his throat and breast.

"You are--awake?"

"Yes."

"Then--listen to me. If you are Jolly Roger McKay you must get
away--somewhere. You must go before Breault awakens in the morning. I
think the storm is over--there is no wind--and if you are here when day
comes--"

Her fingers loosened. Jolly Roger reached out and somewhere in the
darkness he found her hand. It clasped his own--firm, warm, thrilling.

"I thank you for what you have done," she whispered. "But the law--and
Breault--they have no mercy!"

She was gone, swiftly and silently, and McKay looked through the slit
in the wall until she was with her father again.

In the gloom he drew Peter close to him.

"We're up against it again, _Pied-Bot_," he confided under his breath.
"We've got to take another chance."

He worked without sound, and in a quarter of an hour his pack was
ready, and the entrance to his tunnel dug out. He went into the outer
room then, wh