Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/68

52 no one there. Not a sign could he see of any presence but his own. He had been foolish to climb up—but wait—what was that?

Wet footprints showed on the grey stone surface, as though somebody had but now  walked across the weed-fringed rocks, uncovered by the half tide, and had then crossed  the drier space above. Such marks would only last for a moment under this hot sun;  indeed, they faded and disappeared even as  he stood staring at them. What was that gleam of sunlight on metal just beyond that  stone? He went quickly to see and discovered a pair of field glasses, binoculars of the highest power, lying half tumbled out of their  case, as though dropped in hasty flight. He picked them up, adjusted them to his eyes  with some slight difficulty and turned them  out to sea. At first he saw only a dazzling expanse of blue sky, then, as he shifted, an  equally dazzling glare of blue water. Then quite by chance, the glass fell upon the warship, and he could see the sparkle of her shining brass work, the blue uniforms of tiny figures moving on her deck, the black gaping  mouths of her big guns. He laid the glasses upon a ledge of rock, so that he should not