Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/136

118 mill, tripping over roots, stumbling on the moss-covered stones, gasping in their terrified  haste. As they came near Billy heard a strange sound, the Captain’s voice surely, but  high and queer and cracked, shouting out what  must have been meant for a song of the sea. He went up the steps in one breathless leap and came inside the mill.

Captain Saulsby was in the middle of the room, lurching and staggering as he tried to  walk, waving his arms and shouting as loud  as his broken old voice would let him. Billy ran to him and tried to lead him back to the  bench, but was shaken off with a quite unexpected force.

“Let me go,” he cried; “don’t keep me back; they all want to keep me back. Do they think I’ll stay below when it’s my watch?”

He staggered a step forward, swayed and collapsed upon the floor in a heap.

Somehow they got him back upon the bench and Sally tucked him in with the blankets and  pillows she had brought. Yet the moment his strength revived he was struggling to get up  again, shouting and raging at them both. Billy held him down with all his strength but was scarcely able to keep him quiet. At last