nearer
came the call of a moose, and that same sense told him he had heard
a monster bear which his eyes had never seen. He did not know of the
soft-footed, night-eyed creatures of prey--the fox, the lynx, the
fisher-cat, the mink and the ermine, nor of the round-eyed, feathered
murderers in the tree-tops--yet that same something told him they were
out there among the shadows, under the luring glow of the moon. And
a thing happened, all at once, to stab the truth home to him. A baby
snowshoe rabbit, a third grown, hopped out into the open close to the
cabin door, and as it nibbled at the green grass, a gray catapult of
claw and feathers shot out of the air, and Peter heard the crying agony
of the rabbit as the owl bore it off into the thick spruce tops. Even
then--unafraid--Peter wanted to go out into the moon glow!

At last, there was an end to his wait. He heard footsteps, and Jolly
Roger came from out of the yellow moon-mist of the night and stopped in
front of the door. There he stood, making no sound, and looking into the
west, where the sky was ablaze with stars over the tree-tops. There was
a glad little yip in Peter's throat, but he choked it back. Jolly Roger
was strangely quiet, and Peter could not hear Nada, and as he sniffed,
and gulped the lump in his throat, he seemed to catch the breath of
something impending in the air. Then Jolly Roger came in, and sat down
in darkness near the table, and for a long time Peter kept his eyes
fixed on the shadowy blotch of him there in the gloom, and listened to
his breathing, until he could stand it no longer, and whined.

The sound stirred Jolly Roger. He got up, struck a match--and then blew
the match out, and came and sat down beside Peter, and stroked him with
his hand.

"Peter," he said in a low voice, "I guess we've got a job on our hands.
You began it today--and I've got to finish it. We're goin' to kill Jed
Hawkins!"

Peter snuggled closer.

"Mebby I'm bad, and mebby the law ought to have me," Jolly Roger went
on in the darkness, "but until tonight I never made up my mind to kill a
man. I'm ready--now. If Jed Hawkins hurts her again we're goin' to kill
him! Understand, Pied-Bot?"

He got up, and Peter could hear him undressing. Then he made a nest for
Peter on the floor, and stretched himself out in the bunk; and after
that, for a long time, there seemed to be something heavier than the
gloom of night in the cabin for Peter, and he listened and waited and