Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/23

Rh much as the gnarled and stunted willow-trees at his gate.

Instead of grasping a telescope, he was holding a bright blue sock which he was mending as deftly as though well used to the task. The darning needle seemed lost between his big  fingers, but it went in and out with great speed,  pushed by a sailor’s palm instead of a thimble. That, Billy thought disappointedly, was the only really nautical thing about him.

“Good afternoon, Johann Happs,” the captain called cheerily as the first of his visitors came near. Then peering over his spectacles at Billy, he added, “Who is that behind you?”

The boy whom he called Johann wheeled suddenly and turned upon Billy a look that he  could never forget. Terror, desperation and defiance all were written on his unhappy face  and in his startled eyes. When he saw, however, that it was not the black-haired man who had peered over the wall, but only a boy from  the summer colony at the hotel, his evident  bewilderment and relief might have been almost ridiculous had they not been pathetic. He laughed shakily and turned to the captain.

“I do not know who it is,” he said, “Perhaps someone to buy strawberries.”