Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/227

Rh “This wind is nothing to what is coming,” Johann shouted.

Except for this remark and for the orders he issued from time to time, he scarcely  spoke throughout their long and perilous  voyage. White-faced, determined, with eyes that seemed to be seeing far visions, rather  than the hungry seas about him, he stood at  the tiller and, by main strength of will it  seemed, drove the little boat upon her course. To Billy it appeared that at any moment one of the vast, green mountains of water that ran  beside, must sweep in upon them with its overwhelming flood, but always the boat lifted  just in time and slipped over the crests in  safety.

He crouched in the bottom, drenched, shivering, blinded by the flying spray, thinking of nothing but Johann’s next order and  whether he could carry it out. Dimly he realized that the wind shrieked ever louder  through the rigging, that the great waves were  becoming greater, that the squalls of rain  were sharper and more frequent. Yet he never doubted the outcome; he felt certain  that Johann’s skill would not fail them, that  the wind might roar as it pleased, and the