Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/112

88 shadow of the old fortress, and drew in great breaths of the life-giving salt air.

“Ah, it is good to be here!” exclaimed Gysbert “Art thou not glad we came,  Jacqueline? And now let me ask a question. Answer truly! What hast thou had to eat to-day!”

“Oh, I had plenty answered the girl evasively. “The weather is so hot that I cannot eat much.”

“Now, look thou here!” he replied. “For breakfast this morning we had some watery  gruel of our pigeon grain, and a thin slice of  malt-cake apiece. I saw thee eat the gruel, but the cake disappeared quickly in some  mysterious way. Jacqueline, didst thou save it to take to Jan?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so,” she faltered, cornered so cleverly that she could not deny  it.

“Very well!” replied Gysbert with decision. “Then I will tell him the next time