Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/193

Rh want the hotel clerk to give it for me, or he would be telling it all over the Island. I hope your Aunt won’t mind it that I called you  out of the church.”

Billy read over the message, then, in bewilderment, read it again.

“Why, Captain Saulsby,” he said, “it doesn’t make sense!”

“I know it,” agreed the Captain, “and I don’t quite know what it stands for myself. But that naval officer from Piscataqua who was out here yesterday told me to send such  and such a message if this thing or that thing  happened; he wrote out several to cover different cases. I suppose he thought I couldn’t get a regular cipher code straight. Maybe I couldn’t.”

The day before, Captain Saulsby had had a visitor whose coming had seemed both to  please him and to make him feel important. An officer from one of the warships lying in the harbour of Piscataqua had come all the  way to Appledore to see him. At first the old man had announced that he would speak to no  officer unless he came to apologize for the  Navy’s refusal of its best recruit; but he had  finally changed his mind and had held a long