Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/319

 man's tall and thin; looked sort of half-starved; grayish hair, I think "

"Gray?" faltered Nelson. Then he shook his head, and: "It probably isn't," he said. "Dad's hair is brown, about like mine. I thought—maybe"

"Hold up!" cried Tip. "Anyone's hair might be gray after a year in a German prison camp!"

"That's so!" agreed Martin.

Nelson looked from one to the other anxiously. "Do you think—it could be?" he whispered.

"I wouldn't hope too hard," muttered Martin.

Nelson stared thoughtfully at his grimy hands and then over toward where the Antietam lay, the smoke lessening about her torn deck. Finally: "I guess I'll go and—and make sure," he murmured.

"Right-o!" said Tip cheerfully. "Like me to go along, old man?"

Nelson shook his head, smiling faintly. "No, because it mayn't be, and—and then I-—I guess I don't want anyone around!"

At the after companion he halted. He had no right to go where he was going without orders. And what should he say? Perhaps he had better wait. …

But he went on. In the wardroom passage he 294