Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/89

Rh able to last longer than I. That land of mine, you know, that Jarreth and the other fellow  are trying to buy, well, they are not to have  it. You will see to that, won’t you?”

“You don’t want to part with it?” asked Billy, not quite understanding.

“I don’t want him to have it,” the Captain repeated, “whether I—I get back to it or not. He doesn’t want it for a good purpose. I’ve suspected that always, though I have never  been sure enough to make an open report. I was a coward, I suppose, and was afraid of  being laughed at. People won’t believe there is a war within a thousand years of us, but  I’m not taking any chances. There are no Germans going to settle down here, getting  ready to help the Kaiser, the way they did for  years across the water. They’ll find their time wasted on the Island of Appledore. It’s foggy a lot off this coast, the island is far out,  there’s a sheltered, hidden harbour, there  where the mill stream comes out; they couldn’t  find a better place, they think, and so they’re  trying to buy it. Smugglers and even pirates, they say, used to make it their landing place,  but it’s worse rascals than either that want to  use it now. Ned Saulsby has stood them off