Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/71

 wait. The mist lifted, little by little, until he began to see the miles of blue water, the hills and  the vast unbroken forest sweeping down to the  water’s edge. How would it be, he thought with a shudder, to be lost in that unending maze of  green?

Presently he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and around the corner of the building. He glanced up quickly and saw that it was Jethro  Brown again, wearing a dingy straw hat on the  back of his head and carrying a suitcase. He loitered at the other end of the platform and  would not have come near, but Hugh arose from  his seat and went straight to him.

“You must tell me,” he said, “why you thought I was the only one to carry that news to Oscar  Dansk. I have thought of nothing else all night.”

Jethro flushed.

“I shouldn’t ever have spoken of it at all,” he stammered, “I don’t know what possessed me. I just got to thinking and felt that something ought  to be done, that some one ought to go. But I