Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/108



the destroyer had other orders, Billy and Captain Saulsby were transferred to a ship that was to put in toward Appledore Island  and pick up the two officers who had been left  there for shore observations. Billy observed the captains of the two vessels talking very  earnestly together, and that afterwards they  strolled down the deck to have what seemed a  casual chat with Captain Saulsby. He, himself, however, was too busy seeing and hearing new things to pay much attention to what was  going forward. He was taken down to see the ship’s engines, and stood gazing at them in  dumb awe, feeling much as though he were  an ant staring at the shining mechanism of a  repeater watch.

They went ashore, finally, in the ship’s motor launch and were landed in the little harbour below the old mill. Billy had thought that the place had been chosen as the best spot 90