Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/240

 all the facts that had puzzled him so long  and to learn the truth about that adventure in  which he had so unexpectedly become involved.

As he listened he knew at last that the vital figure in the whole affair was Laughing Mary. Nothing had happened as it should and every plan had gone awry, merely through the strange irresponsibility of an Indian woman’s mind. He and the Edmonds boys who did not know her well, and  Oscar and Linda and Half-Breed Jake who did,  had all been equally deceived. They had been drawn together by a strange web of circumstance of which she was the center. They had all of them had their own ambitions and hopes  and misgivings and fears, and the rock they had  all split upon was Laughing Mary.

Jake, it seemed, had long ago formed the plan of setting the two brothers adrift in the forest  and of casting suspicion on John Edmonds’ memory. He had applied to the Indian Kaniska to help him, but the man had refused on account of  his friendship for John. So the matter had apparently ended until one night, passing through