Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/186

160 care that she was well guarded. Vrouw Voorhaas had also made decided improvement but was yet unable to leave her bed. The excessive weakness caused by her long self-denial and its consequences, seemed almost impossible to overcome. Her constant inquiries about Gysbert too, were becoming  more and more difficult to answer, though  they still kept up the fiction that he was  quartered with Dr. de Witt during her illness. Sometimes it seemed as though she watched them all with hidden suspicion, and once she  even murmured:

“I fear he is not safe! Something tells me he is in danger!” On the night when  the fleet reached Nord Aa a pigeon flew in  bearing the tidings. Jacqueline found him, for she was constantly on the watch for messages, but since it was nearly nine o’clock,  it was deemed best that Jan should carry the  word to the burgomaster. The doctor had just left not five minutes before, and Jan