Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/222

202 “You can’t keep us,” he exclaimed desperately; “you needn’t try.”

“I’ll hear first where you are going, thank you,” returned the Captain, “though to be  going anywhere with such a wind coming, is  rank lunacy.”

As briefly and as earnestly as he could, Billy explained their respective errands and the  need of both of them for haste. More than once he had to shout to make himself heard  above wind and water.

“I’ve got to enlist,” he ended; “to delay now miay mean waiting months. And it takes a long time to train a good sailor; I  must begin now! I must! And you need not say anything, because we are both bound  to go.”

“Well, I’m not saying anything, am I?” the old sailor answered. Then he bent forward and spoke close to Billy’s ear to make absolutely certain of being heard. “I wouldn’t stop any one’s going into the Navy, surely not  at a time like this. But if you go in at the bottom, remember the mistake I made and,  for all you are worth, aim at the top. And when you get to be something big, that every  one salutes and says ‘sir’ to, why, you might