t. Peter heard him working for a moment in the
darkness. Then he struck a match, and the yellow flare of it lighted up
his face. In his joy Peter whined. It was good to see his master. And
then, in another moment, the little lamp was filling their white-walled
refuge with a mellow glow. Jolly Roger's eyes, coming suddenly out
of darkness, were wide and staring. His face was covered with a scrub
beard. But there was something of cheer about him even in this night of
terror outside, and when he had driven his snowshoe into the snow wall,
and had placed the lamp on it, he grinned companionably at Peter.

Then, with a deep breath of satisfaction, he puffed out clouds of smoke
from his pipe, and stood up to look about their room.

"Not so bad, is it?" he asked. "We could have a big house here if
we wanted to dig out rooms--eh, Peter? Parlors, and bed-rooms, and a
library--and not a policeman within a million miles of us. That's the
nice part of it, PIED-BOT--none of the Royal Mounties to trouble us.
They would never think of looking for us in the heart of a big snow-dune
out in this God-forsaken barren, would they?"

The thought was a pleasing one to Jolly Roger. He spread out his
blankets on the snow floor, and sat down on them, facing Peter.

"We've got 'em beat," he said, a chuckling note of pride in his voice.
"The world is small when it comes to hiding, Pied-Bot, but all the
people in it couldn't find us here--not in a million years. If we could
only find a place as safe as this--where a girl could live--and had Nada
with us--"

Many times during the past few weeks Peter had seen the light that
flamed up now in his master's eyes. That, and the strange thrill
in Jolly Roger's voice, stirred him more than the words to which he
listened, and tried to understand.

"And we're GOING to," finished McKay, almost fiercely, his hands
clenching as he leaned toward Peter. "We have made a big mistake,
Pied-Bot, and it has taken us a long time to see it. It will be hard for
us to leave our north country, but that is what we must do. Maybe Yellow
Bird's good spirits meant that when they said we would find happiness
with Nada in a place called The Country Beyond. There are a lot of
'Countries Beyond,' Peter, and as soon as the spring break-up comes
and we can travel without leaving trails behind us we will go back to
Cragg's Ridge and get Nada, and hit for some place where the law won't
expect to find us. There's China, for insta