Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/148

130 went on, “and as soon as I had finished the message I was coming back to find out if we  could help you. I looked back over my shoulder to see if the others were coming, and it was then I happened to glance up and see our German friend in the window. He was so interested in trying to make out the message I was sending that he must have forgotten everything  else. He had not even put out the lamp when he pushed the window wide open, so I could  see him clear and black against the lighted  room, and I guessed in a second who he was. I broke off my message and instead began telling the ship as quickly as I could that we  had found him. He must have been able to read that, for the next minute—ping—a bullet  went by me and stuck in the sand.”

One of the officers now appeared in the doorway, come to inquire into the welfare of Captain Saulsby.

“We will get him home,” he said; “the tide is off the causeway now and my men can  carry him across to his own house, or perhaps  on to the hospital in the village. I am afraid he is pretty sick after all these adventures! I wish we could have had time to help you  sooner.”