Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/187

Rh hobbled off to execute his mission leaving Jacqueline with Vrouw Voorhaas. The girl sat reading by the sick bed, casting an occasional glance at her patient who was sound  asleep. Presently, thinking she heard a knock at the door, she closed her book and  hurried downstairs.

“’Tis early for Jan to be back,” she thought. “He has but just left, and I know he will want to stay and chat awhile with  Mynheer Van der Werf. Who can it be!” Some indefinable sensation of misgiving  caused her to be a little long about opening  the door. She was reassured, however, by seeing only a small boy who thrust a note  into her hand, and turning ran down the  street. She called to him to come back as there might be an answer required, but the  child apparently did not hear her, and was  soon out of sight. Wonderingly she brought the scrap of paper to the candle-light and  read its contents.