Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/167

 prize indeed to take back with him when the time should come to go. But how had the pirates come by it ? Had somebody been following that day in the forest, was the same somebody even  now following Oscar wherever he had gone?

He made his breakfast and fed Nicholas from his own supplies. Fortunately he knew enough not to try to give food to John Edmonds, who  was sleeping uneasily again, as though the fever  was once more beginning to rise. Hugh, sitting beside him, began to do some very intense calculating as to who would be the most likely to come  back first, Dick Edmonds or Half-Breed Jake. It was impossible to tell, he could only wait. He sat, staring down at his patient for a long time. The only proper thing to do was to try to get him across the ravine to Oscar’s cottage, but  could a boy of sixteen possibly hope to convey a  heavy, helpless man that far? To all of his questionings this was the only one to which there was a definite answer. And the answer was no.

The morning passed, one slow hour after another. It was still raining heavily, with water