mind. He had forced himself into forgetfulness of laws he had
broken, and the scarlet-coated men who were ever on the watch for
his trail. They would never seek him here, in the wilderness
country close to the edge of civilization, and time, he had told
himself in that moment of optimism, would blot out both his
identity and his danger. Tomorrow he would go over to Cragg's
Ridge again, and then--

His mind was crowded with a vision of blue eyes, of brown curls
glowing in the pale sun, of a wistful, wide-eyed little face
turned up to him, and red lips that said falteringly, "I don't
think it's wrong for you to kiss me--if you want to, Mister Jolly
Roger!"

Boldly he had talked about it to the bright-eyed little mother-
mouse who peered at him now and then over the edge of her box.

"You're a little devil of iniquity yourself," he told her. "You're
a regular Mrs. Captain Kidd, and you've eaten my cheese, and
chawed my snowshoe laces, and robbed me of a sock to make your
nest. I ought to catch you in a trap, or blow your head off. But I
don't. I let you live--and have a fam'ly. And it's you who have
given me the Big Idea, Mrs. Captain Kidd. You sure have! You've
told me I've got a right to have a nest of my own, and I'm going
to have it--an' in that nest is going to be the sweetest,
prettiest little angel that God Almighty ever forgot to make into
a flower! Yessir. And if the law comes--"

And then, suddenly, the vision clouded, and there came into Jolly
Roger's face the look of a man who knew--when he stood the truth