Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/98

80 ached and was as disappointed as anybody when no such discovery was made. Time passed and nothing was to be seen but a waste  of angry, tossing water; so the lights were  finally covered and the destroyer turned to  pursue a steady course northward.

Billy never quite knew by just what process he came finally to be on the bridge. He was aware that it was absolutely against all rules  for him to go there, but such a force of curiosity drew him thither that it did not seem possible to resist. By slipping silently from one inconspicuous place to another, by lounging  carelessly against the rail whenever an officer  chanced to pass and by speeding across the  deck the moment his back was turned, he  finally came closer and closer to the desired  spot, ventured a cautious foot upon, one of the  steps and then another, and all at once was  safely curled up in a corner of dense shadow  within the sacred limits of the forbidden place.

The Captain was walking slowly up and down, talking to one of the officers, passing  every now and then so close that he almost  brushed Billy’s elbow. In the gleam of one of the hooded lights, he could sometimes catch  the glistening of the water on their wet