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

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Laughing Mary
59

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