great happiness to lie here, broken and in pain, with the face of
his beloved mistress over him and Jolly Roger's hands working to
mend his hurt. He whimpered when Jolly Roger found the broken
place, and he cried out like a little child when there came the
sudden quick snapping of a bone--but even then he turned his head
so that he could thrust out his hot tongue against the back of his
man-friend's hand. And Jolly Roger, as he worked, was giving
instructions to the girl, who was quick as a bird to bring him
cloth which she tore into bandages, so that at the end of ten
minutes Peter's right hind leg was trussed up so tightly that it
was as stiff and as useless as a piece of wood.

"His hip was dislocated and his leg-bone broken," said Jolly Roger
when he had finished. "He is all right now, and inside of three
weeks will be on his feet again."

He lifted Peter gently, and made him a nest among the blankets in
his bunk. And then, still with that strange, gray look in his
face, he turned to Nada.

She was standing partly facing the door, her eyes straight on him.
And Jolly Roger saw in them that wonderful something which had
given his storm-beaten soul a glimpse of paradise earlier that
day. They were blue, so blue that he had never seen violets like
them--and he knew that in her heart there was no guile behind
which she could hide the secret they were betraying. A yearning
such as had never before come into his life urged him to open his
arms to her, and he knew that she would have come into them; but a
still mightier will held them tense and throbbing at his side. Her
cheeks were aflame as she looked at him, and he told himself that