Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/169

 coming, sniffing along the threshold, then barking and leaping again. Hugh jumped up, so stiff that he could not move quickly. He took up his revolver and tried to reach the door, but was only  half way across the room when it swung open,  and Dick Edmonds came in.

He was drenched and dripping, and he, too, held a revolver in his hand. The two boys stared at each other for a long moment, then burst into  roars of laughter. The long strain, the sudden desperate tension, the relief of each one at seeing  a friend when he expected to confront an enemy,  was quite too much for both. Even while they laid down their threatening weapons and shook  hands they were still laughing. It was Dick who sobered first and went over to stoop down by his  brother.

“He must have been getting steadily worse from the time I got him here,” he said. “Poor old Johnny, if he had been as badly off as this I  would never have left him. But this was as far as I could get him alone and I was so desperate  that I went off for help. I had been hoping