From the cabin McKay went first to the great rock that jutted from the broken shoulder of Cragg's Ridge, and as they stood there Peter heard the strange something that was like a laugh, and yet was not a laugh, on his master's lips.

But his scraggly face did not look up.

There was an answering whimper in his throat.

He had been slow in sensing the significance of the mysterious thing that had changed his old home since months ago.

During the hours of afternoon, and these moonlit hours that followed, he tried to understand.