Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/156



on-shore wind, blowing the cloud of fog before it, was a better friend to the German fugitive than it was to his pursuers. The search was a long and blind one, and all of  the boats that scattered to find him came back  with only failure to report. Some of them had seen a big white yacht go by them in the  mist, but as such vessels were so common  along the coast at that season, little notice had  been taken of her. One boat, indeed, had come close enough to ask whether she had  seen any such craft as the catboat they were  seeking, and had been directed to bear off to  the southward, as the yacht had sighted just  such a boat near Andrew’s Point. When the little catboat was finally found, however, floating idly with the tide, far to the north of Andrew’s Point and just where the yacht might  easily have passed her, suspicions began to  arise as to how the German had escaped. In- 136