"McKay," he cried, reaching out his hands.

"McKay, my boy!" A look of pity mellowed the gladness in his eyes as he noted the change in Jolly Roger's face, and the despair that had set its mark upon it.
They stood for a moment with clasped hands, questioning and answering with the silence of their eyes.

And then the Missioner said: "You have heard?
Someone has told you ?" "No," said Jolly Roger, his head dropping a little.

"No one has told me," and he was thinking of Nada, and her death.
Father John's fingers tightened.
"It is strange how the ways of God bring themselves about," he spoke in a low voice.

"Roger, you did not kill Jed Hawkins!" Dumbly, his lips dried of words, Jolly Roger stared at him.
"No, you didn't kill him," repeated Father John.