Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/96

78 been conscious and quite cheery, they told him, and had now dropped off into a comfortable  sleep. A friendly blue-jacket who had also come to ask after the captain’s welfare, took  Billy under his care, and offered to conduct  him up on deck. Once there, however, the sailor was called away by a sudden order, leaving his charge clinging to the rail and wondering just where they were going and what  they were doing. Clouds of salt spray swept the length of the ship, making him duck and  gasp and grin, but he would not have gone  below again for anything on earth.

The night was pitch black now and stormy, with gusts of wind and rain, the ship seemed  to be taking an aimless course, running generally southward from Appledore Island but  moving now here, now there, sometimes at  half speed, sometimes as swiftly as her big  engines could drive her. Presently his new friend was able to return to his side and to explain a little more of what they were about.

“We’re playing the war game,” he said, “and our orders just now are to look for submarines. The only sign of one we have found so far was your little craft, and a pretty model  of a submarine she was trying to make of her-