Captain Saulsby finished his story and shifted warily in his place. He glanced over his shoulder at the rising bank of clouds, but betrayed no surprise.
“I knew by the feel of the wind that some such thing was coming,” he said calmly. “If somebody’s going to pick us up in time they’ll have to hurry a bit.”
He made one or two efforts to talk further, but the pauses between his sentences became longer and longer. Billy suddenly realized that each had been trying to keep the other interested so that the ominous bank of clouds might go as long as possible unnoticed. He observed that the old sailor seemed very weary, that more than once his hands slipped from their hold and had to take a fresh grip. He tried to whistle to keep up the spirits of both of them, but the tune sounded high and queer and cracked, and he gave it up. At last Captain Saulsby broke silence suddenly.
“No one seems to be finding us,” he said, “and we can’t hold on forever. There’s something I must tell you, in case you should be 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 so far, but he may have to leave the work to some one else.”