Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/79

Rh cheeriest of tones. “I’m not so spry as I used to be, but I’ll make it all right—er—ouch, but  those barnacles are sharp. I should never have let the boat get such a foul bottom. Now,” as he came up beside Billy, “there we are as fine as you please. We’ll just have to wait a couple of hours, and some one will be  sure to pick us up. There’s nothing to worry about in a little spill like this. See, the squall’s gone by and the clouds are clearing  away already.”

Billy looked about him and was not so sure. To be perched upon the keel of a capsized boat, rocking precariously with every wave, to  have miles of empty ocean on every side is a  little disturbing the first time you try it. So at least he concluded as he watched the sun drop  slowly toward the horizon.

The war game had drifted away to the north, so that, for the first time in days, there  was not a vessel of any kind in sight. Above them the clouds were assuredly blowing away,  but over in the west another bank of them,  thick and grey and threatening, was rising very  slowly to meet the sun. There could also be little doubt that the wind was steadily freshening and the waves splashing higher and