Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/251

 ground and plant it in wheat this spring. The road will be slower; it has many hills and valleys  to cross, but by summer when the harvest is ripe,  it will be ready to carry the grain away. Some day we will be able to fill one of those great ships  whose sailing once so nearly broke my heart.”

“And that man there?” questioned Hugh, motioning upward toward the cabin that lowered  at them from above on Jasper Peak.

“We can carry him out to Rudolm, now that the way is cleared,” Oscar answered. “I think he may live a little time longer, but his power to  do harm is gone forever. Yet when he tried to burn the cottage he came, but for you, very near  to beating us at last.”

They walked down the hill to the edge of the lake so that Hugh might catch a glimpse, around  an intervening spur, of the line of cleared ground that wound across the valleys. They sat down upon a snowy log and talked long and earnestly  of what had passed and of what was to come. Suddenly Hugh looked down and recognized the big tree trunk upon which they sat.