Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/184

 isn’t quite so good when you are worn out  and half starved, as when you are rested and fed. You don’t see things quite so clear.”

“But weren’t you afraid of Jake’s coming back?” Hugh asked.

Dick, it appeared, did not have such horror of the Pirate of Jasper Peak as had Hugh. He did not even yet seem to suspect that the half-breed had been concerned in their being lost in  the forest nor had he heard the full tale of what  Jake had done to Oscar Dansk. One anxiety had overcome the other and he had left his  brother, ordering Nicholas back when he would  have come too, and finally shutting him in so that  John Edmonds should not feel himself quite  alone.

“But almost as soon as I was gone he broke out and went across the valley to you,” Dick concluded. “Nicholas had more sense than I had, didn’t you, old fellow?”

The big dog, lying on his side before the hearth, opened one eye and beat gently on the floor with  his plumy tail at mention of his name. Then he