Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/143

Rh stranger of the mill. Billy had only an instant’s view of his face, but he recognized, in that instant, the narrow, black-eyed countenance that had once peered at him from behind the rocks and that had so frightened  Johann Happs when it rose above the wall. The man leaped over the window sill and dropped upon the ladder-like stairs outside,  but the rotten timbers gave way beneath him  and he fell heavily to the ground. The thick bushes below must have broken his fall, however, for he jumped up and made off into the  dense undergrowth, while shouts on either  hand showed that he was being watched for, and a crashing and tearing of branches indicated that the pursuit was hot.

Billy turned back from the window and went over to Sally.

“Are you hurt?” they both asked each other in the same breath. On being assured that the glancing blow Billy had received was “nothing, just nothing at all,” Sally sighed deeply  with relief and picked up her fallen candle.

“It was lucky I did not set us all on fire,” she said shamefacedly. “I—I never could abide things that go off all of a sudden like  that. Oh, Billy, what about the Captain?”