Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/21

Rh and with stiff black hair. He seemed to be peering intently at the boy on the path  but did not move or speak. The boy, also, said nothing but presently went upon his way again, swinging his bag and once more trying  to whistle. But such a trembling, broken tune as came forth in place of the former cheerful  music! The lad looked back once, but was gazing so eagerly at the wall that he did not  notice Billy at all. He showed a face turned suddenly gray-white with terror, drawn, haggard and anxious. It was plainly visible that his knees shook under him as he tried to stride  onward at his former gait, and that it was  because of the trembling of his hands that  his bag of tools dropped twice upon the  grass.

What could have been in that man’s face that had alarmed him so? The boy looked like a vigorous, spirited sort of person, Billy  thought, one that it might be nice to know and  be friends with, not a coward. The mild interest that had brought him through the gate now gave place to extreme curiosity as he  hurried up the path.

Around the curve of a low knoll Captain Saulsby’s house came into view. It was an