Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/141

Rh to wait for the passage of a second to make out just what was there.

An oil lamp stood upon the table in the middle of the room, but its light beneath the  green shade fell in a narrow circle and left  all the corners in darkness. He was vaguely aware that there was a man over yonder by  the window, and that he held something in  his hand over which he worked and muttered. It was a rifle, in whose magazine the cartridge evidently had jammed and had prevented the  immediate firing of a second shot. Yet, even as Billy realized that this must be the case,  the thing snapped into place and the hammer  once more was drawn back with a sharp click. Sally, standing near him, dropped her candle, which fortunately went out, put her hands to  her ears, and shrieked aloud,

“Stop him, Billy; he’s going to do it again!”

It was not their lives the man was threatening. He crouched over the window sill, steadied the barrel of his weapon against the  ledge and took long, deliberate aim. Billy, as he ran across the room, could see over the  stranger’s shoulder, down between the trees  to the creek and the high rocks at the edge  of the little harbour. There on the point in