Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/129

Rh down now and the water shallow enough for him to cross the stepping stones. Once beyond the mill creek he could get help so quickly that perhaps his two companions  might not even know that he had gone.

To spend such a night as he had, to follow it by sleeping all afternoon on a bare floor,  and then sit up on a three-legged stool for half  the next night, seemed to make one feel a little  queer. He tramped down the path briskly to get the stiffness out of his legs, then turned  to look back at the mill to make sure Sally  was safe. There was a feeble, flickering light in the lower windows, that was from their fire,  and the candle that burned on the mantel shelf. But—

“Is that moonlight?” wondered Billy, as he caught a faint glimmer from one of the panes in a window above.

It might have been moonlight reflected on the glass but he could not be sure. He went back to make certain but could not for the life  of him decide. There were outside stairs, so steep as to be practically a ladder, that went up to the top of the mill. The steps led very close past the window at which he was looking and at which he continued to stare for