Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/151

Rh good humor was undimmed during the return to Quimpaug. He cast a stealthy glance at the air-hole in the gasoline tank as he started his motor, however. The engine behaved irreprochably, and he made quite a neat landing at the lighthouse pier.

"You have given us true pleasure," Jim said, shaking the Russian's hand. "You should express yourself always in music."

Garth looked up at his father, and then at the Count. Then he put out his hand a little hesitantly.

"Thank you," he said, "for the music."

Stysalski stared rather apprehensively at the brown hand which was offered him; then he turned away, with a sidelong glance. Garth's arm dropped to his side; his hand closed mechanically upon his crutch; but his eyes, very grave and troubled, were fixed on the Count's back.

Joan sat holding the yarn which Elspeth was winding that evening after supper. Jim came down from upstairs, where he had stopped, in passing, to tell Garth a "four-minute story."

"Another sort of yarn was being unwound up there," he said, as he turned up the student-