In this moment, when fear of the unspeakable set his heart trembling, his faith fastened itself grimly to the little old gray Missioner, Father John, in whose cabin Nada had taken refuge many months ago, when Jed Hawkins lay dead in the trail with his one-eyed face turned up to the thunder and lightning in the sky.

Father John, on that stormy night when he fled north, had promised to care for Nada, and in silence he breathed a prayer that the Missioner had saved her from the red death that had swept like an avalanche upon them.

He told himself it must be so.

He cried out the words aloud, and Peter heard him, and followed closer, so that his head touched his master's leg as he walked.
But the fear was there.

From a spark it grew into a red-hot spot in Jolly Roger's heart.