the strawberry stain from her finger-tips. And the stain was on
her red lips, and a bit of it against the flush of her cheek, as
she gave a little cry of gladness and greeting to Peter. Her eyes
flashed beyond him, and every drop of blood in her slim, beautiful
little body seemed to be throbbing with an excitement new to Peter
as she looked for Jolly Roger.

Peter went to her, and dropped down, with his head in her lap, and
looking up through his bushy eye-brows he saw a livid bruise just
under the ripples of her brown hair, where there had been no mark
yesterday, or the day before. Nada's hands drew him closer, until
he was half in her lap, and she bent her face down to him, so that
her thick, shining hair fell all about him. Peter loved her hair,
almost as much as Jolly Roger loved it, and he closed his eyes and
drew a deep breath of content as the smothering sweetness of it
shut out the sunlight from him.

"Peter," she whispered, "I'm almost scared to have him come today.
I've promised him. You remember--I promised to tell him if Jed
Hawkins struck me again. And he has! He made that mark, and if
Jolly Roger knows it he'll kill him. I've got to lie--lie--"

Peter wriggled, to show his interest, and his hard tail thumped
the ground. For a space Nada said nothing more, and he could hear
and feel the beating of her heart close down against him. Then she
raised her head, and looked in the direction from which she would
first hear Jolly Roger as he came through the young jackpines.
Peter, with his eyes half closed in a vast contentment, did not
see or sense the change in her today--that her blue eyes were
brighter, her cheeks flushed, and in her body a strange and