Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/135

Rh quietly to shore on a bit of gravel beach.

For a long time he lay panting and exhausted, making no effort to move. It seemed as though he would never get his lungs  full of air again, so completely had he spent  both his breath and his strength. At last he sat up, discovered to his surprise that he was  still half in the water, crawled up the bank  and began trying to wring out his dripping  clothes.

“I don’t think there is much fun in adventures that you have all alone,” was the grave comment that he made to himself as he stumbled up the beach.

“Now, just what can I tell Sally?” he was thinking further when Sally’s own voice interrupted him. He heard her quick feet coming down the path and heard her voice,  raised high in real terror, crying,

“Billy—Billy Wentworth!”

He ran up through the bushes and met her as she came flying toward him through the  mist.

“Come quick,” she cried; “come quick. It’s Captain Saulsby. I—I, oh, Billy, I’m so frightened!”

Together they sped back up the path to the