Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/63

 but he felt no very great interest in these accounts of Half-Breed Jake, a man whom he instinctively hated and would, he hoped, never see again. Only wonder as to why Jethro wished him to stay in Rudolm and what all these details had  to do with himself, held his lagging attention.

“Do you see that road,” Jethro went on heatedly, “that road yonder that leads over the hill? That would have meant a lot to the people here, but it came to nothing. It was to be built through the woods as far as Jasper Peak and would have  opened up the country at the upper end of the  lake. Jake stopped it. He calls all that country his, and is bound to keep the fishing and the hunting and trapping for himself. He killed the plan with open threats and secret lies: at first the men  went at it with a rush, but in the end somehow the whole thing fell through. It was the first time he ever scored a real victory off Oscar Dansk."

Hugh turned, his interest caught at last.

“That is one person I want to know about,” he said. “Who is this Oscar Dansk?"

“He is Linda Ingmarsson's younger brother,”