Five years were a long time--FOR HIM.

That was the thought which kept repeating itself over and over in his brain, and with it came that other thought, that self-preservation was the first law of existence, and therefore could not be a sin.

Thus did Father John turn traitor to his spoken words, though his calm and smiling face gave no betrayal of it when Nada and Roger returned to the cabin an hour later, their arms filled with red bakneesh vines and early wildflowers.
Nada's cheeks were as pink as the bakneesh, and her eyes as blue as the rock-violets she wore on her breast.
And Father John knew that Jolly Roger was no longer oppressed by the fear of a menace which he was helpless to oppose, for there was something very confident in the look of his eyes and the manner in which they rested upon Nada.
Peter alone saw the mysterious thing which happened in the early evening.

He was with Nada in her room.

And she was the old Nada again, hugging his shaggy head in her arms, and whispering to him in the old, excited way.